Photos from Team Canada MXON Tuesday Shakedown

By Billy Rainford

The team headed to a track called Motocross Club de Romagné today just outside the city our Fougeres which is about 25 minutes from the “house” we are all staying in. Team France had the track until 2pm and so we got a chance to sleep in a bit and try to get back on schedule as far as the time change is concerned. They watered the track for about 20 minutes before Team Canada hit the track and we couldn’t help but think they were doing something to try and sabotage our team! With only 3 riders about to hit the track, we didn’t think they needed to put that much water down on the hard surface.

After 2 of our 3 riders hit the “deck” early in the slippery stuff at the top of a hill, I was worried their imagined plan may actually work!

It didn’t, and all 3 of our guys put in some good work in front of as they made a few changes to get the bikes working nicely for what they can expect on the weekend in Ernée.

Here are a few shots from Tuesday.

The day started with James Lissimore getting the bikes set up to take one of the best Team Canada MXON bike photos EVER! Not a bad backdrop!
It was a slow start to the day with us not being able to get on the track until 2pm.
Colton’s first night story will likely never get old. No, I”m not telling it here.
We got to the track nad had some great lunch that Kourtney had arranged and brought with us.
Justin Roney is here one week before he’s set to be married!
Nico doing some final touches to the #45 KTM of Jess Pettis. He wasn’t aware that I chose #45 as my race number back in…1981.
With Brayden Kalte still making his way here, Ryan Lockhart was “in the trenches” today.
Ryder and Dylan keeping things light while we waited for the watering to finish.
It was cool to see some French moto fans stick around to grab autographs from our guys.
Today’s pits.
Did you know Jess was left-handed?
Dylan setting the sag.
The cliché is watching paint dry, but this was close.
The track is in a little valley so it was similar to what they’ll see this week with the ups and downs along the sides.
I really liked the “old school” vibe from this jump. That’s #44 Ryder McNabb.
Here’s Jess on this same jump. Unadilla vibes, right? PS I was at the MXON there in 1987…
Dylan jumping down the side. I tried for some long shots to give you an idea of the elevation.
Some of our crew lining the fences.
Dylan took a fall in the slippery stuff early but still stayed out and put in a 30.
The KTM boys.
Someone from the French team stayed a while and hit his stop watch to compare. Our guys had only done 2 laps and the track was wet, so I hope they’re underestimating us!
I was keeping an eye on them…
They all agreed that this jump was fun.
Talking over some suspension settings with Colton.
Nico getting some stop watch data.

That”ll do it for the first ride day of the week leading up to the races. Wednesday is an off day and we’re actually going to check out some Normandy stuff. I shot some video from today and will get that up. The team is back on a different track on Thursday.