This month has gone way to quick, always the way when you have a lot to do. Rach and myself have just got back from the first race of the season where Rach killed it, it was mega to see her at a race again smashing it up. she dropped straight back into it like she had never been away….. Yesterday we hit up such an awesome mx track with the new Dirt Norco team, it was mega. Vuillemin was trackside coaching one of his riders, think i impressed him with some massive tankslappers…..maybe. Stanny and Baltic were putting in some hot laps, Glyn O’Brian was there coach for the day….. This weekend will be Athys first Supercross race on his 20inch…. it will be mega to see him racing and everyone knows he has the potential to kill it…. fingers crossed it goes well. good luck bro….
Me and Rach have just touched down in Italy after our trip to Cali. It was a rad trip but i miss the mud, it was definatly a bit less eventful than last year. We left Athy out there to keep up his pedaling practice….. and squatting. he loves it, and he can gate me now. which sucks. Because it was just Rach and myself in our van it meant we could load it up with whatever we wanted to take, meaning the mx bikes were straight in there…. This morning we drove to the edge of town, parked up and set off on a huge enduro through the mountains…. Every now and then i would go back down the trail to find out where Rach had gone, and find her wedged against a tree halfway up a hill climb with the YZ stuck on top of her. It was a lot of fun. Few more weeks out here so im sure there will be plenty more action.
Early january found me heading out to New Zealand to film my section for Follow Me, the new film from the guys at Anthill….. i was riding with Stevie Smith the whole time and that kid has got one speed, absolutly pinned. The riding out there is nuts, so many different downhill tracks and some real quality tracks aswel, with some serious effort put into maintaining them. It was a rad trip and the footage will look sick, we filmed some of it with a heli which was flown by the same guy that did a load of the filming for the Lord Of The Rings movies. he was nuts. The Anthill guys had some cool ideas for the section and we tried some pretty cool stuff. check out the size of the headcam we were using below. Queenstown is an amazing place to visit and ride in, the locals are a super cool bunch and everyone there rides. get yourself down there if you have never been….. and make sure you check out Follow Me when it is out. its gonna be nuts…..
Writing this im sat in my hotel after a night out in Rio, a city renound for partying, for beautiful beaches, for drug wars and generaly a place for a good time. And there was no exception for the street race that took place y day in the Favela, The Redbull ” Desafio no Moro”
RedBull took a risk with this one i think, it could have gone one way or the other, a street race turned kidnapping, or one of the most groundbreaking street races to have ever been held. It defianatly went with the later. The Race started at the top of the mountain, on a ridge that overlooked the whole of Rio, underneath the famous statue of christ. You sprinted out of the start gate, hit a kicker, then literaly dropped into the slum. The track was made up of steep stair sections, wooden platforms and concrete ledges. It was a seriously steep hill for a street race, and it cut straight down the centre of the favela….. There was no pedaling here, you just had to lay of the breaks slightly and you would be charging through narrow alleyways, hitting steep steps that would be randomly wet, there would be dogs, cats , chickens and children wandering over the whole track. but still you had to ride past them like you were hitting some fast section on Maribor wc track. I think the thing that really made the race was the atmosphere though. All the way down the crowds were screaming and cheering and so stoked that the race was coming through their hood, through their part of the world. At the podium, it turned into a carnival / street party. They called the boys up ( polc, markolf, athy) gave them the prizes then it just erupted. The dj hit Jacko on the music system and literaly the entire crowd just started dancing and partying like they were in a night club. i’ve never seen anything like it. everyone there was hands in the air, killing it. I was even told that some of the locals were selling vip watching spots in the ghetto for the friends and family to watch the race from. It definatly set a benchmark for street races.
This years national champs were held at Innerleithan, Scotland and with a new track cut in, it looked to be a pretty rad weekend. The track was much faster than usual with much less tight, twisty action in the woods allowing the riders to get much looser and hang it out a bit more, and with the conditions going from torrential rain to hot sun, it was always hard to predict what the track was going to ride like. All the fast guys turned out for the race, which was good to see, showing that the National Champs title is still just as prestigious as ever. Saturday was just a full day of practice with Sunday being qualy and race run, After qualifying Peaty was sitting in first with me 2nd, then Beaumont, Stanbridge, and Athy, showing that i had some work to do….. with the track drying out as the clouds cleared i new it was going to be a choice between mud tyres which had been the tyre all weekend, or take a gamble on dry tyres, which would ride much faster but with no practice on them, would be a deffinate risk for me. I went for drys and as soon as i hit the track new it was the right choice and it showed when i crossed the line. With just Peaty to come i new he would be fast,he wanted all or nothing. he showed in the last woods on time, but with the course still being super slick and pretty blown out, he got high sided on the last turn. I took the win, with cathro 2nd, simmons 3rd. It was mega to take the National title, definatly a race which has always meant a lot to me. This week the team heads out to Canada for rounds 6 & 7 of the world cup series. nice. Gee
This weekend Stevie Bell and myself trucked down to Willingen in Germany for wheels of speed. With a good prize purse it turned out quite a few riders had the same idea. Practice started on thursday but with the same track as the last few years most riders rolled in on friday. It was funny to watch Stevie battling with the pits by himself as i stopped by to buy him a beer in between practice runs….iv never heard him cursing so much. My run in the final was mega close, i just took the win over Mick Hannah with Kovarik 3rd, Polc 4th and Matti 5th. the track was so dry and fast that you really had to get pretty loose to be up to speed. all the kickers were sending you to flat and you had to battle the swaps straight again instead of touching the brakes for a split second. pretty cool racing all in all.
Just got home after a weekend at Bike Radar live which was mega…..Saturday night saw a worldcup standard line up of riders, taking place in the slalom. With a rad course being built by Bullhead and Will Longden the racing was super tight all night, riders could win from either lane meaning it was never over until the very finish. After qualifying first i moved through the rounds facing the Don, Simmonds, Saladini then Lopes….. My first round of the semi saw Saladini take me apart after a few mistakes on my half because i was pushing too hard…. for the second round i chilled it out a bit and rode my own race, and managed to pull it back. Through to the final and i was facing the main man, Brian Lopes. I knew it was going to be a tough race and with a british crowd baying for a home win the pressure was on. Both rounds were super close and Lopes was on fire but i managed to put some time into him on the bottom section to take the win. The weekend was a huge step for the riding scene in Britain and i was stoked to see so many people make the effort and turn up…..hope everyone had a rad weekend and it was mega to see you all….. Fort Will next yaaaa.
First year for me to hit up US Open so i had some catching up to do with the regulars…. i rolled into NJ late thursday night and mechanic Ben got straight into building up the bike, Friday morning was an early practice session so walking the track was kind of out the question. First run down the track and i realised how rocky and gnarly it was, this was going to take some learning….. my runs went pretty well and i got into the swing of things pretty quickly. When i thought i was man enough i did some runs following Stevie Smith, a big faceplant into the rocks reminded me i wasn’t up to speed yet. Sat qualifying went ok apart from another crash in the rocks and i went into Sunday feeling strong. Practice sunday morning was solid and i was all set for the race untill a huge thunderstorm rolled in and dumped a years worth of rain on us. Another wet race run with no practice saw me struggling to hold things together and i ended up splitting Brendan(3rd) and Sam (1st) up for 2nd spot…..
After a bit of a slow start to the season i wanted to start picking up the pace a bit for andorra, i knew i could do well here and knew it was my chance to catch up on a few points…. Getting there early we had a few days to kill, so feeling like a break from Downhill bikes we hit up Enduro Bike legend Cyril Despres, He set us up with some bikes and kit and it wasn’t long before we were following up some local trails…. When i say following i mean setting off in a similar direction as to where Cyril dissapeared and when i say trails i mean waterfalls…. After a bit of time trying to man handle the 300 2stroke up the river i tried out the 660 Rally bike, which was crazy, it was like riding a car and the power was nuts. But so much fun, It took a while to get comfortable but i guess you just had to ride it like a normal bike, just looking over all the fairing and ignoring the 32 litre tanks…..
Another 5th place in La Bresse at the weekend, i felt good all weekend, had a fast run in quali and was confident for a good result in the final. guess it wasn’t to be tho as sunday saw peaty take everyone apart. As far as events go for me, i think La Bresse put on an awesome show and the crowd was crazy, 10 deep in some places and pretty wild as well. Definatly will be one of the top worldcups of the year…. Monday morning saw us on the road again trucking down to Andorra. Passing through Montpellier we stopped of at a sick bmx track and busted a few laps, Dan Brown and Clay had a grudge race after talking shit to each other for 5 weeks about who was raddest. turns out neither of them was…. then on into Andorra….. the whether sucks for sure.