Oh dear, woke up to a blanket of snow everywhere as far as the eye can see!
Not a good day then to ride your bike? Determine not to be outdone, i quickly phoned up the MX track to see if i could be accommodated. Alan (the owner) must have thought i was mad when i said i'll come out to his place and give it a go, but thats exactly what i did.
Getting there was tricky as the country lanes that i drove along were like something that Torvill and Dean would have been at home with. Steve Jose was following me in his wagon, and he even questioned my sanity, as we both made our way very 'gingerly' down the back roads and up to the gates of the track.
Now then, this is where the fun began.When we arrived neither of us could get our vans up the slope, through the gates and into the field to get parked, it was just too slippery, solid ice, so i had a brainwave! I told Steve to break out the shovels from his van so we could dig the snow out of the way just wide enough for our wheels to go in, and maybe we might be able to get some sort of grip and 'Bobs your uncle'.
So after 10 mins of digging (me mostly i might add) and then quite a lot of tyre smoking and wheel spinning lunacy from both our vans, we finally made it, result!
So after having a look at the snow covered partly frozen deeply rutted track,it was off to get changed and fire up the bikes. I'm telling you what, i went off like i'd only just rode the bike yesterday, and went really well, which more than i can say for Steve! This is gonna be the only time i'll probably say this, 'but i whipped his arse good and proper today'.
With the track getting softer as it began to thaw, he was struggling to find any kind of grip with the trials tyre on the back, but i was flying due to having a brand new Metzeler six days on the rear. I overtook him and left him for dead just about everywhere, and it's the 1st time iv'e seen Steve getting stuck revving the nuts off his 250 going nowhere on a hill. It got to the stage where i was even giving him a head start, and within a minute i'd be saying 'bye bye see you later', 'Do you want me to call you a taxi'?
It wasn't all fun and games though, the track after being used so much was deeply rutted and fairly hard going, and with the bike skipping about all over the place you had to hold on a bit, which in turn took it's toll on my arm. After about an hour and halfs riding (with a few coffee breaks thrown inbetween) i decided to call it a day and not to push it too much as my elbow had started to ache a bit.
So, had a great bit of fun today and it brilliant to get back on the bike good and proper, but the bottom line is, at the moment i'm just not ready to sustain any kind of riding for a prolonged period. Won't be rushing to fill any regs for events in just yet, just have to take it week by week really.
Plans for February:
At least i'm back doing some training now, i've started running again which for me is how i kept so fit last year, along with all the racing as well, certainly helps does that. I'll be out and about watching all the races this month and hopefully getting some time on the bike to see how things progress. Must admit to being a tad dissapointed as i'm gonna miss the start of a few championships that i'd hoped to compete in, might have to re think my plans a bit!
