Denaye Giroux: End of a Great Season

The 2013 Saskatchewan Provincial Series wrapped up in Yorkton this past weekend. This was the first provincial race I had been to all year. It was great to catch up with all of my friends and close families that I never got to see all summer. Most of these people have been a part of my life since I was little. They have watched me grow up at the track and into the person I am today so to spend some time with them was long overdue.

Although I am still not back in the saddle racing, my younger sister Dallyn made the trip home and we took the job of lap counting in the morning. I can’t really say that’s a job I enjoy doing. Most of the time I was side-tracked by the epic battles that were happening on the track or I yelled through the glass for my favourite local riders. Being away from the local races for an entire year, I was anticipating some great racing from all of the youngsters that have moved to big bikes this year and seeing just in general all of the kids that have improved on their riding.

What I saw was bigger, better and beyond what I had expected. Saskatchewan is going to have a great group of up and coming kids in the next couple years. Kyle Biro making the big move to the Intermediate class had an impressive ride showing all the Intermediate riders the way around the track and how to beat some of the Pros. Kennedy Lutz and Haylen Langelier had one of the best races of the day battling back and forth in almost all of their motos, and Kennedy killing it in the MX2 Junior and Youth classes, absolutely schooling the boys and pulling off a massive lead! Josh Duerkson dominated his classes and had to make sure I was there to take a picture of his no-footers at the finish line.

It’s also great to have the national series done because we got to see our boys Zack and Shawn back in Saskatchewan to battle it out. I got a chance to go out and take some pictures for the second half of the day. Before Shawn’s moto I went over to talk to him and he said “make sure you get some good whip pics.” So I wandered over to one of the jumps to get the photos he wanted, and by the middle of the moto I noticed he hadn’t been riding as aggressively as he was earlier so when we were leaving we stopped to find him in the Sprinter when he said he hurt his foot. Shawn’s downhill mountain bike buddy, Kyle Sangers, was there and got the “what could have been an almost crazy crash” on video; Shawn was going in for a massive scrub when his foot got ripped off the peg. At the time we didn’t know, but he ended up breaking his fibula and two other bones at the top of his foot. I am impressed he lasted all night, never complained once and even managed to put on his dancing shoes later that night! That is one tough cookie!

The banquet is always a fun time for everyone to get together and celebrate a great year. For some reason we always manage to show up fashionably late. This is crazy because the banquet hall is just down the highway from my house. So me, my sister Dallyn, Blake, Shawn and Kyle showed up while everyone was up getting their food. There were no tables left and we were hungry. We ended up sitting beside Dale and Desa Fidek who I felt a little sorry for halfway through the night for being stuck at a table with us. We managed to recruit a few others to have the loudest, rowdiest table, which happens every year.

Another successful year is in the books. Here are the individual awards that were given out throughout the night to some very deserving people:

Most Improved Small Wheel Rider: Noah Duerkson
Most Improved Large Wheel Rider: Haylen Langelier
Dedication and Desire Award 16 and Under: Jesse Royan
Dedication and Desire Award 17and Over: Charity Bachman
Lucas Bachman Memorial Award: Steve Pittman
Most Sportsmanship Award: Dylan Opseth
Mom of the Year Award: Christa Langelier
Father of the year Award: Mark Opseth
High Points Award: Cole Conn.

A big congrats to everyone who raced this year. Whether it was a good year, a great year, or a bad luck year, learn from it and use it to motivate you for the next season.

Denaye 🙂