There's always something special about the first ride of the year, especially when it happens to be on a fresh motor, totally redone suspension and new tires (thanks to B! He's the best!).

                My first ride of the year was last Sunday, which really made it a great weekend. I got to watch Supercross from the press booth (which really are great seats but then again, the beauty thing about the Roger's Centre is there really isn't such a thing as a bad seat - especially when you're in the 200 levels) and I got to for a ride. And on top of that... it was an awesome ride! Even B felt that I did really well, and as I've mentioned before, he's not one to dish out the compliments lightly.

                We went to a friend's place, where there are some good trails and some technical stuff, not that I really get into the super technical stuff. I kept to the "easier" side of things, but had a lot of fun. B led me around on my first lap, just to make sure I knew where to go, and after that I was on my own.

                I did pretty good, and after a while I was feeling quite comfortable. We did some set up, lowering my brake pedal and fiddling with my levers, and it was a dream. My suspension has been given a full upgrade; it's super plush and works awesome in choppy trails.

                After the ride, all I could think was : Man, I love my bike, and how much I missed it through the winter.

                The worst thing to happen to me: I snapped the buckle off my boot! So I guess I'll be needing a new pair! Any suggestions?

                I'm not that big on snowmobiling. I hate being cold. The sleds, even new "lighter" ones are really heavy and not nearly as nimble as a bike, and I don't turn all that swiftly on a dirt bike. But, never the less, if I'm given the opportunity to  break away from the winter blues and go for a motorized rip, I'm game. The opportunity came last weekend when we received a good dumping of snow.

                Growing up we all have our heroes; favourite riders, our parents, older siblings, fictional characters from movies, television shows or books.

                After my Dad and Mom, and the girl down the street Alison, who was super nice to me, my biggest hero was Wonder Woman. This shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to those who know me. I'm almost never without my Wonder Woman belt buckle, regardless of the situation (award ceremonies, motorcycle shows, in the field or at the post race party; you'd think it's my only one,where in fact I have 6 other buckles, but WW is my favourite).

                A little preface to this one: I’m a comic book junkie, and it's all Wonder Woman's fault.

                To little six to eight year old me Wonder Woman was awesome! She kicked butt, played with the big boys, Batman and Superman. As a tomboy that was really important to me; I didn't have a lot of girls to play with, most of the kids my age where I grew up were boys, so having a role model that said "Yeah, of course you can do that!" was pretty stellar.

                Wonder Woman was powerful without cashing in on her looks, or at least that’s how I remember her. I’m sure the male audience remember her for something entirely different, but as a girl watching Wonder Woman reruns with my mom on Saturday afternoons I remember thinking: Wow. When I grow up, I want to be like that.

                I'll admit that my memory might be just a little heavy on the rose coloured glasses, but I always think of Wonder Woman as this tough, "Anything you can do, I can do better!" type of woman.  

                I guess where I’m going with this is as a girl it was hard to find stable, strong and independent role models. Maybe what I like the most is that Wonder Woman, and her Amazon Sisters, support each other. They are fierce competitors, but they leave it on the field and live a rather peaceful life on Paradise Island.

                Let's face it, we don't get a lot of that in popular media these days.

                I'd like to challenge all of the women who read this, the mothers, the daughters, the sisters, the friends, to support each other; let's drop competition, the rivalries between each other, and just for once be supportive. No more Mean Girls. I'm certainly going to try, and I've got something up my sleeve for the month of March to go along with it.

                Who were your heroes growing up? Let me know at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

    We've heard all the jokes; the "chicken vs. pussy," a phrase made famous by No Fear over a decade ago, all sorts of clichés about testicles that haven't dropped yet but I hadn't heard of "pussification" till the other day when I found Ryan Hughes on a radio show.  He was talking about the latest generation of motocrossers and called it the "pussification" of America. 

 Well with the weather here on the East Coast getting colder and flurries starting to linger on the forecast our riding season has come to a close, a bunch of us suited up and headed to Steve Daling's Birch Hill practice track in Pictou County for the last ride of the season.

It’s ALIIIIIIIVE!
    Okay, so all throw backs to the old horror movies of the past (the above being from Frankenstein), the new Inside MotoX & Off Road website is up and running. I’m so relieved.

Alright, well it's crunch time for all those late Christmas shoppers; the long line ups, crazy drivers, and the chaotic madness of people all happens at about this time of year.  (Oh the joys of Christmas!) It's also that time of year where everyone is wondering if there will be a Women's Series in Canada come spring.

There are always rumors flying around that they won't have anything but in the end something always comes up. As much as I want the series to grow and become some thing like the WMA down south it all depends on what the committee votes on for us.

When the Canadian Women's Nationals started in 2006 with the help of Jolene, Mallory, and Jessica it was at its best! I was so happy to hear there was finally going to be a series where the fastest women in Canada would race against each other. I don't know what everyone else's provincial series are like but in Saskatchewan there were usually only 5 of us lined up in the Ladies class; and more than half the class is made up of myself, my older sister Amber, younger sister Dallyn, and my Mom Carrie. To hear that we could actually ride against other girls sounded like such a great experience! I look up to all of those girls, and even up to this day I have so much respect for what they have done to get it all started.

Every year since then the series seems to suffer; we aren't getting the absolute most we can out of it. I understand what they were trying to do when they split it up into an East/West Series. They were trying to make it more cost saving for the women, and get more women riders out to the races, but doing this also decreased the racing action that we had. Let's face it: we don't pull out the entry numbers like the men do. It will take a few years before we come anywhere close to that, but when we had both the East and West together we had the top 5 girls from coast to coast battling it out on the track. Now that it's split the top 5 girls are off in one pack leaving the rest are having their own battles. As a spectator it's not all that exciting.
 
Think about it this way: the men have a full gate + a little more in each class. How many do you think actually  travel the entire circuit across Canada? Top 10? For sure! Top 20 riders? Maybe. When the women's series traveled across Canada we had the top 6 to 10 riders competing at all the rounds. I believe that if you are already committed to doing the series you will find a way to get to every round. Spectators will be more interested in watching all of us together again battling it out.
 
I am sure you will be hearing more about this topic from me in the future but there is just a little slice of what I have been thinking. Where is our series going?
 
Peace out!
 
Denaye Giroux #1W