A weekend of MX

This weekend was the British MX GP and we all went down to camp there for the weekend. Even Hannah my girlfriend came along for the weekend which was cool. She said she really enjoyed it but I don't think she was quite as impressed as I was by Cairoli scrubbing the rhythm section. The track was pretty spectacular. Its great to watch the pros ride and appreciate first hand how awesome they really are. I find it quite inspirational and encouraging because it shows you what is possible on a bike. Tommy Searle got his first GP win and Tony Cairoli (the man) won MX1.

Monday was a public/bank holiday so I went to the desert. I put in two full motos and felt really good. There was a very tight corner that Cooper and I were practicing last week which took me a while to get nice and smooth. This week I did it straight away and proceeded to do it every lap of my two motos. Its a great feeling when you've practiced something and then when you come back to it, its stuck with you. I also took my mate Alec Townley along. He had never ridden a motorcycle before so the plan was to give him a go. He did really well and managed to pull off first go, so there were smiles all round.

So it turned out to be an awesome weekend with awesome weather and lots of awesome motocross!

Race Tech inside!

Last week Ryan Mason from Shocktech hooked me up with some Racetech suspension products which included the Gold valves front and back. We went out to the desert on Thursday to test it out.
I was completely blown away. I knew that suspension made a difference but I was always sceptical about what could be done with the stock suspension and how much of a difference it would make for someone at my level. The difference was amazing! I've never felt so confident over the whoops, the bike was so stable! Coming into the corners was also so much easier because the bike seemed to have way more traction and the back wheel wasn't bouncing all over the place over the braking bumps. Going round the corners was also a treat as the bike seemed to sit nicely in the pocket and traction was a lot better.

I would definitely say that this is the best upgrade you could ever do to your stock bike, hands down. Forget about after market pipes and alloy fuel caps, this will make you go faster.

Thanks Ryan for hooking me up and dialling in my suspension.

Commited!

Man the GOAT is awesome. If you don't know who the GOAT is, its Ricky Carmichael and his nick name stands for "the greatest of all time".

This winter is going to be like no other. I'm going to start constructing a program now which I will follow during the winter. It will entail weight training for core strength as well as cardio for fitness. Everytime I watch that video of Ricky it gets me excited about training. It will definitely be hard especially when there is no racing going on and the weather is cold and misrable but I'm going to stay focused on the end result and the benefits it will bring.

Dalton WYMX

Dalton turned out to be an awesome day. There is so much to say but I'll keep it short.

The track looked quite intimidating to begin with. It had two massive step downs with some doubles and step ups. Quite a few of the jumps had some very deep middle sections to them so it meant if you didn't jump them you had to roll them very slowly. I went out in practice and for the first lap I took it slow and rolled a few of the jumps. The second lap of practice I approached the first big step down and decided to pin it. I sailed over the jump and cleared it. After that confidence was high and I proceeded to clear all the jumps. It felt really good and I could have just gone home at that point and I would have felt satisfied.

Moto 1 - There were about 38 riders on the gate. I managed to get an average mid pack start. I had a nice consistent moto doing all the jumps every lap and working my way up to 6th.

Moto 2 - I got my first ever holeshot! One of the best feelings in the world of motocross, to come flying round the first corner with a clear track in front of you and not having to pull a tear-off. I stayed in the top 3 for a few laps until I went down in a corner. I managed to get up very quickly without stalling and only losing one place. One lap later my left foot came off the foot peg and the back of my boot got caught on the peg folding my foot underneath it. At first I thought I had broken my ankle as it went completely numb. Half a lap later it came back to life and I was able to hang on for 4th place. After the race I could feel my ankle wasn't in good shape, so just left my boot on so I could finish the day.

Moto 3 - Another great start! I managed to get round the first corner in second place. After a few laps I had settled into 3rd place but then came off. Once again I was able to keep the bike running and only lost one place. A few corners later, the rider who passed me went down too so I was able to get 3rd back. By this time the track had become very tiring. The straights had become very bumpy and a lot of the jump faces had big divets in them. Very exhausted I held on for 3rd place.

I ended up finishing 4th overall, my best result so far. Unfortunately there were only trophies for top 3 (they were big trophies), so nothing to show for my best result ever, haha. I took the camera but forgot to take the memory card so no photos as of yet but hopefully I'll be able to get some from the other people that were taking photos.

Unfortunately my friend Lee Smith, riding in the expert class, had a nasty fall in the whoops and destroyed his shoulder. He has dislocated it and broken it. He already had pins in it from a previous injury and they were all ripped out. I sincerely hope he makes a speedy recovery and comes back stronger than before. Get well soon buddy!

As for my ankle, I got home and took my sock off and it looked like I had a golf ball attached to the side of it, so I might be out for a little while myself.

Do your motos... or not!

I haven't raced in 3 weeks. Feels like ages but things have been going well. Over the last few weeks I have been concentrating on doing motos. Every time I practice I do at least two full race length motos. If I fall off I get up and keep going as if I were in a race. It has been good for developing my "racing mind" too because I find its easy to go and do a couple of fast laps but to do it consistently for the length of a race and keep concetration high, is a whole different story.

On Wednesday at the desert I felt really good and I got the feeling that these motos are starting to pay off. I feel more consistent and more in control.

I've still got a way to go before I can keep up with Ryan but he's a good person to be riding with and to be chasing week in and week out. Unfortunately he came off quite hard on Wednesday and suffered some minor memory loss from banging his head. It was quite funny listening to him repeat himself over and over and try to convince us he was okay to carry on riding. He wanted to finish his motos but we wouldn't let him. I spoke to him yesterday and he said he feels much better and will be racing on Sunday, so that's a good sign.

This was Ryan on Wednesday, the man I'll be chasing for a few years to come.