Lows n' highs!
By TMX Archives on 20th Apr 06
Things have been very busy recently, starting with an unexpected trip to hospital after a practice crash the Thursday before Hawkstone. The x-ray showed a small fracture in my right thumb so I decided to miss Hawkstone and rest up for the first British championship round a week later. I still went to Hawkstone to watch and meet up with a few people I haven't seen for a while and got chatting to a guy from Science in Sport. Their products are energy drinks and different nutritious things that are good for me on race day and Michael hooked me up with some sponsorship products for the rest of the season so I was pumped with that. I had treatment on my thumb all week before Lyng and also had a brace tailor-made so I didn't injure it again. It still wasn't 100 per cent but it didn't bother me that much at Lyng and now it's no problem. It was great being back racing in the UK again - the atmosphere the whole day was awesome and it was really good to see all you fans again. The day went okay and I was happy with my starts but I rode a bit stiff so I guess I should be pleased with fourth overall - it wasn't what I was hoping for but I got fairly decent points to start the season with. I'm enjoying the move up to MX1 and racing with different riders is a nice change - and I really like the new bike. The obvious difference in the bike for me is the power compared with the 250F. I feel more at home on it every time I ride and it seems to fit well with my riding style. I can take different lines than I would be able to on a smaller bike and, of course, there's always that extra bit of power when you need it! With only a couple of weeks to go until the first GP we had one last test to do. Some Japanese technicians came over to help even though we only had some small things to test and I was already happy with my set-up. I stayed in Holland the week before Zolder to prepare and ride on some rough sand tracks so I picked up Jodie from Eindhoven Airport on Wednesday night and we met up with Huck, Big Al from MotoXtreme and Joe 'The Darkness' Dark for a bite to eat. On Thursday evening we headed to Zolder in the camper, got set up and relaxed watching DVDs. The next morning I was woken up by the sound of rain hammering on the roof of the camper. It's fair to say it rained a lot which made the track very wet and rutty in Saturday's practice sessions. I qualified eighth fastest which I was pleased with as it gave me a good start position for Sunday's races. In the opener I started just outside the top 10 and struggled to find a rhythm for most of the race, ending up 10th and determined to do better in race two. I almost got the holeshot in the second but was just squeezed out by Everts. The pace was very high on the first five laps but after that I settled in well and rode a good strong race for sixth at the flag and eighth overall, something I can build on for the next GP. Another plus is that my fitness and lap times were good at the end of the race. And while I'm on the subject of the GP I'd like to say a big thanks to the British fans who travelled over and supported me - cheers guys, much appreciated! The next few weeks are going to be pretty packed with round two of the British champs and a couple of GPs. I've got a lot of homework to do to improve my results but I'm really looking forward to it. So the month started a bit stressy with my thumb injury but has ended up not so bad! Okay, got to go - I've got all the household chores to do plus some painting. Yes! Painting! Jodie started but I've been left with all the crap jobs like filling in the edges. Still, I shouldn't complain - it's good training and certainly helps stop arm-pump! See ya...