Double blow
By TMX Archives on 17th Jul 03
certainly picked up since arriving back from Scandinavia. As you're all probably aware the results I got weren't up to my usual standard. THINGS HAVE certainly picked up since arriving back from Scandinavia. As you're all probably aware the results I got weren't up to my usual standard. A bad result in Finland and an average result in Sweden was not the way I wanted to end the world championship season.The Finnish event was held at the home of Petri Silvan and was in deep sand. Having ridden here before I felt confident of a good result but I was to be proved wrong and most of us WEC regulars got well and truly smoked by all the Finnish riders. I finished eighth on day one and ninth on day two.Why the bad result? Well all I can say is that I should have been out practicing in Finland a lot earlier like the other riders. I get the feeling that to win at top level enduros you have to arrive at a race venue at least two weeks before the event.After a little bit of Italian disorganisation we finally arrived at the Swedish race venue. I'd been here before many, many years ago and arriving a little bit earlier I managed to test and prepare the machine a little bit better for this race. The event was going to be a good one with loads of tests and some awesome jumps on the cross country test - after a great start and winning the first test of the day I felt like a new man.After riding well throughout most of the day I was disappointed to crash and go from second to fourth position. The second day however wasn't so good and after heavy rain had destroyed the last two tests and with us being at the back of the field I could only manage fifth - but what really hurt was that McConnell beat me.So after Sweden it was back home to get ready for Fast Eddy Culham and some training schools. I already know the lap was a little short at Culham and some of the boys struggled to pass in the trees but it was a first time at a new venue and I honestly think it has good potential. There's more land available for next year and the possibility of building a MX track so it should give the venue what it needs for next season.After Culham I headed to Tong for a Fast Eddy training weekend organised by the smooth-man himself, Julian Stevens. After 10 phone calls from Julian saying "bring this and bring that" I'd finally remembered everything and I left for the trip up north.The training schools were on Saturday and Sunday and with a few beers on Saturday night the weekend was soon over and it was time to head off home. I'd just taken delivery of a new machine from Ride MX - I've now got a YZ250 to do some races in the UK. I hope to race the Epynt enduro, Fast Eddy Hawkstone and hopefully some other events.Racing the 250 should make my job a little bit easier to do well against the big man from the Isle of Man (Knighter). I also confirmed that I'll be racing a 250 four-stroke in the ISDE and with Knighter in the 450 class I hope that we can both do well and help the team get another good result. Right now I'm off to Italy for a month and when I return I should have some news about next season.Fast Eddy