Takes Outs and Piss Tests.

Scott and Myself leading out the 19+ big dogs!

Hartlepool national was quite different to any other national i'm likely to ever attend, its a track with 6 straights, 5 turns, built into quite a steep hill side, there were plenty of moves being thrown down in every corner, in pretty much every race. Heavy hitters went out in many classes due them falling victim to a sneaky inside line, or simply washing out. I'm kinda glad I have Bolehills dirt turns to practise on, and didn't feel too loose whilst trying to keep low and dug in. If you could corner. You had it.

Thanks to Rich Eames for this one!

Bad news came in the form of Tuffy smashing himself big time in to the floor. It was pretty awful and it took him some time to come around and get with it, he didn't get up straight away like he normally does. So i knew it was bad. Turns out other than many scrapes and bruises and a serious concussion he broke his good wrist. Damn man, get well soon.



Laurence Mapp qualified for the spot to race in Aigle for a chance at Olympic glory. Congratulations! He didn't have it easy though with Harry Britt making the trip over from the states to have a pop, and the hungry Dan Whyte. Laurence kept his cool and managed to do the business come final time.


Gamble attempting to bust a move on Harry Britt - Sick photo!

Kelvin apparently broke his hand riding Aigle, but recent news comes in just bad bruising and swelling and he'll be able to keep it on lock for the time trials next weekend and get himself to the Olympics. You've done the hard work, you deserve to go.

19+ was quite low in numbers 13 in fact, but at least we didn't have grand prix racing like many other classes. I struggled to be honest, getting out in front then getting boomed left right and centre most motos. I got a 4 4 3 and qualified 6th with 4 others on 11 points. Tight! Scott Waterhouse, current 19+ leader had a bad day also and went out on 13 points to the B final, but locked it down to win it.

The final was messy I fell asleep and was at the back, but railed turn one and pulled in the gap on the 2nd & 3rd straights, fallers in the 2nd and 3rd turns saw me move up to 5th and it was down to the wire with Chadwick and Hodge, but they got it ahead of me so i'll settle for 5th, tight stuff!

After the race, the winner, Flemdog and myself got dragged away for a piss test, a bizarre experience! I had to Pee into a cup with some old guy watching me, then seperate it into 2 vessels that get sent away for testing. Plus filling out a million forms and cross checking everything. Can't see any 19+ yowths busting out the performance enhancing drugs somehow! ha ha.

Some time on the road bike this week to ponder and recover. Maybe hit Mansfield or Chessy for gates too.

Blow Your Whistles!

Yo!

Ibiza was off the chain! An awesome weekend away with some of the funnisest yoots in the game! We had an awesome time, no clashing, just full on laugh a minute partying, swimming, dancing and beaching it up - Perfect - o! On our first day we hired scooters and roadtripped the island, we found a secluded beach which had rocks to jump in off, and it was amazing, we swam about a quarter of a mile to an island off shore and it was mint, a side of Ibiza i'm sure 90% of the ravers don't see! We headed back and grabbed some food, Mason, pro MX rider and mentalist swerved a manhole and ate shit, the moped had the throttle stuck wide open, crowds shot out of their seats to see what had happenned, hands clasped to their mouths in disbelief, cue an entourage of rouges rolling in on 6 other mopeds laughing hysterically and pointing, moments before he's been busting donuts out stating how good he was on 2 wheels. Can i ride a motorbike? CAN I, ride a motorbike?!

Awesome. We did a couple of big nights out, rolling heavy on the gaza strip we owned that night and then hit Hed Kandi hard on the saturday night. Something i'm not normally into but the groups vibe was hot and i could have been listening to triple speed swedish grindcore techno and i'd have still had an amazing night. We partied to sunrise, popping the collar off an ice cold Sol at 6:30am.

AMPED!

We then headed back and spent our last day at this awesome beach, clear blue sea and white sandy beaches, it was perfect! I felt a million bucks after an hour long dip. I was totally bummed this was our last day, but i'm stoked we were making the most of it.

The groom and the best man, suppin' Sols at 6:30am, we roll like that..

It was an awesome weekend away, with some of the freshest cats i know, Warren had an awesome time, and really, thats all that matters. We got your back Brother!

The wedding is a week on saturday, i got my suit yesterday and it fits a treat, stoked! I better get onto polishing the speech up for the big day! It's gonna be hectic bru!


Peeped AdULTHOOD last night with AT, big film, check it out.

Hartlepool national this weekend i'm just heading up for a bit of fun and something different, i'm just chilling for a few weeks now, i've kinda lost the love a bit recently, think things have been so awesome and hectic that it's drained me, and nothing can rouse me. Hopefully still get a good result and enjoy some Northern hospitality.

See ya'll about, a'ight!

Ibeef-a-fa-fa-fa!

Had a chilled week catching up with sleep and getting some bits finally sorted after putting them off and off for so long. Team Rad is off to Ibiza tonight, 3 nights of chaos and carnage! On the trip, the stag and bride to be - Warren Harper, Myself, A to the T, The OC, Mason, RB.com, Pete and Russ. Messy will about cover it, and we should have an awesome time i'm sure.

Get back 4am on Monday morning, sleep that bad boy off and get ready for some flat pedal action at Hartlepool the following weekend for more national fun.

Rode Bolehills for an hour last night and it was a good session trying new lines through the last straight and pedal manuals over the first one, which i've never done before either.



Aaaah, Ibiza.

All up in the grime!

Been having a bit of fun since Chesterfield, hit the Tuesday club with Will Cash Money, Lucy and Greg for some low down grime supplied by Oris J and Mary Ann Hobbs, was quite a treat! Some fresh D&B in room 2 supplied by London elektricity to get the liquids flowing also. I had a good night and kept it clean with just a couple of G&Ts so keeping it lo-cal and on lock for the racing!

Rest of the week I was quite busy with work, but the time flew by and the weekend was soon upon me, i headed home and caught up with the Fam and it was pretty good. Always great to see my folks and have home comforts. It was a little sad not having Frank bumbling at my feet, and he is definately missed by everyone.

On Saturday i rode at Dahenham and had one of the best sessions there yet, CK Flash did a training session and it was seriously good, focussing on skill work and we threw down a timed lap, i was back on my flats but still put in a fast lap beating the majority of riders except Dan Whyte and Lee Baker who were flying, and took 5 seconds off their previous attempts. I finished off the day busting it over the big double on the second straight which i've never done before, not because its too big, but the preceeding jumps are so small its difficult to carry speed through it. But I though funk it, so i did it, I was pleased i got that one outta the way now!

Saturday night my Brother came round as it was his birthday we had some good food, talked about old times and caught up, it was nice and ran on quite late, we then watched a sick film. Into The Wild. Check it out, inspiring stuff for sure.

Sunday i headed to Peterborough i was feeling flat and a bit slow, i need to chill for a bit i think! I managed to do okay getting 3 1 4 in motos a 4 in the semi and finishing 5th in the main. Not a bad day, I was on the flats too which made a nice change, i was pooped. Headed back to sheffield and drove Abbie T home, where her Mum prepared the biggest dinner i've ever had, it was awesome, and I was stoked!

This week chilling it down, some light skill work and a few laps then off to Ibiza on Thursday night for Warrens stag do.. Gonna be Kkkkkrrrazy!

Full reports, or maybe, not so full, when I return!

Out!

Scream if you wanna go faster!

Pretty blogged out right now after my mammoth China one!

Chesterfield national was today plenty of thrills and spills i made the main and finished 5/6 not quite sure as it was a little close! 28 riders in the class today which was good, plenty of speedy dudes and some good racing for sure. scott waterhouse was back on form and took the win, good work fella!



Tuffy was mental in Elite, i've never really seen him pissed off before and he dealt out some blows today! One crazy youth for sure. I might buy him some knee pads for Christmas too. He'll be a wreck if he ain't careful. We'll be doing sprints in a street near you soon, Tuffy and DC on the war path!

I'm pretty flat, back to reality tomorrow at work. Sheesh.

Over and out!

China, China, China!

Not long been back from the trip of a lifetime, I'm still buzzing! It was an amazing experience, one that I shall never forget. Everything in China is big, busy, fast paced and chaotic, but it all seems to integrate and work seamlessly. Cars, people, bikes, scooters and small fluffy dogs brush by each other with mere millimeters to spare, yet no one crashes. I have no idea how is can work like that. If some English dude hopped in a car over there there'd be fender benders and snapped off wing mirrors before they'd gotten top the end of the street. No wonder you can't hire cars over there!

We arrived quite late and hit the sack after grabbing a quick bite, 5 star style, the rooms were sweet, the best shower i've ever used and i made sure i hit that before i got some shut eye. We'd been up and on the travel tip for over 24 hours (including the GMT +7) so we were all pretty shot, yet we managed to grab some pretty good sleep and i didn't feel too jet lagged. We got up Tuesday morning and built the bikes up after having a massive breakfast. We had our country practice at 11am so we took a ride to the track and experienced life on Chinas mean streets, the ride was crazy, but what was crazier were the Chinese peoples reaction to us, Taiyuan is far off a tourist hot spot, Westerners must be a rare site and they probably don't venture too far from their 5 star joint, so they literally stop and stare, some with looks of bewilderment and others with huge smiles and massive waves and a loud HELLO! We all felt like celebrities! Everyone was so cool with us, even the police stopped and posed for pictures with us! We rode along taking in the sights, brushing with death at every intersection and enjoying the experience. The ride takes about 15 minutes and its about 4 miles, we grabbed our kit from Tony Da Butcher who was looking after us all weekend and we got ready for Practice.

Normally at an event like this you'll be lucky to get 10 laps in a 2 hour practice slot but we more than we could handle, you finished a lap grabbed a drink and you could be back on the hill within a few minutes, the wind was quite strong so the second straight was a little tricky, but everything else came together nice. I felt good and my gates were on the button, the hill was super steep, something i'm not normally into but it seemed to work well for me here. The heat was crazy, so after one lap i had to gulp down a big mouthful of fluid and keep it wet, the atmosphere was still super heavy, even though all the heavy plant and coal mining had been shut down for the event, which i thought went to show the commitment the Chinese people made to hosting this event.

The tour(ists) consisted of Lauren Smith, Dave Ives, Russ Hanlon and Flemdog. There were plenty of other UK heads over there including Tony the Butcher and son Billy, The Taylors, Hillybag, Mark from Groove, Marco and Andy Shaw, the GB squad and their entourage of shrinks and mechanics. We were all rocking it in the same hotel so it was nice to see some familiar faces amongst everything else.



UK on tour!

Wednesday practice was 90 minutes and again more time than we needed, the track was sweet and i was enjoying it, the pressure was minimal so it meant instead of stressing about a certain jump that i needed to nail it was more of a session, where you could chill, stop on the track, wait for a gap and have some fun with it. That's how i like it! I'm sure no other Worlds before now, or after now will be anything like this.

After practice we were tourists again and took the streets cameras in hand to see how things were done in China, i was loving it! That night we hit up a restaurant called 1950, we had a few beers, some good food and had a really cool time, the over staffed restaurant didn't no what hit them! Russ was perusing the waitresses like tasty morsels from a menu and we all had a laugh. The banter was flowing and we were relaxed, and psyched for Friday!

Thursday saw the 15 and under classes racing and we had 4 W plates in the form of the Dudley brothers, Darcy Taylor and Lauren Stack. After that the elite guys rocked the track and it was insane. These guys are off the chain. I've also never seen the American guys in action, and they were awesome, Bad Bubba Harris nailing the pro section first lap like it weren't no thing. Dave Ive's love affair with the man multiplied by 10 after seeing him in action in the flesh and not on Transit. However, as good as the americans looked stand outs were Sifiso from South Africa, Graves from Oz, Willers from NZ, Strombergs and the french Yowths

After Elites were done we took a steady ride back, went for some food and pro sleep before racing the next day. It was get nervous time. I was out like a light, Ivesy tossed and turned all night, i obviously hadn't let it sink in!

On race morning we rode to the track warmed up and got our focus on in the parc ferme. I was pretty nervous now! There were 17 riders in 25-29 so 5 were dropped for two 6 man semis. I had an okay moto, I only recognised 2 guys names and knew they were pretty good. Anyway i got a 3 in moto one. A crash in moto 2 saw me with a 5 (should have been 6 but the Chinese youth who kamikaze'd himself into me got DQ'd) thing was i didn't complete the track as my bike was mashed up, so i got a DNF and 6 points! Argh! So i needed a 3rd in moto 3, I put together a good lap and managed it, so i was in the semi and stoked!

In the semi i got a good gate although i was shatting myself and was in about 3rd, but i stuffed up the jump into turn one, and i was well and truly in 5th. I pulled back some ground down my favourite 3rd straight and almost had it, there was nothing in it, but 5th is 5th and that was that.

Marco got a W5 in my class. Andy Shaw got a W3 in 30+. Dale won Masters with Hilly earning himself a W5. Lauren also got semi'd. Russ got moto'd - Adelaide buddy! And Ivesy did good and managed to secure a W5 plate. Stoked for the UK!

Kelvin in Elite made it out through to the quarters but went out, however he did secure GB (and himself i hope) a spot in the olympics! Liam Phillips went out in motos. Joey went out in the semi. Shanaze killed it, with ease, she got another World title. Ahh, to be that good eh?!

The UK did good bringing home aout 15 W plates. Not bad, not bad at all!



Taiyuan by night

After racing we decided in our group to leave behind Taiyuan and head for Beijing and get on a few things there. Im so glad we did. Taiyuan kind of lost its vibe a bit after the worlds, all the banners & flags came down, all the factories started up again, and it wasn't the same. It was real. But just not the same. We'd seen some amazing things in Taiyuan and I loved it, but i'm glad we moved on for the last bit of the trip.

We got a cheap morning flight to Beijing, checked into a poky little hotel (not a patch on our 5 star easy living!) and got a power nap under our belts. We were all feeling it by now and i could have slept for 24 hours i'm sure! We headed out in Beijing in the Afternoon and there was a lot of westerners, a lot of tourist tack, and we no longer had our celebrity/rock star status. Russ was gutted!



We bought a few bits and bobs and went out for an awesome tea, the thing with Beijing was a lot of people spoke English, so it was much easier to get by, order food, ask directions, order a beer. It was a lot less hassle but didn't feel as good. Guess i like things off the beaten track.



The next day we booked onto a trip, to the Ming Tombs which were prety weak, and the Great Wall of China, which was absolutely amazing. A truly breath taking experience that i shall never forget. I was so stoked to be up there, taking it all in and experiencing something i never thought I would. China, man, it still hasn't really all sunk in. It was awesome.








That night back in Beijing we had the biggest meal of the trip 3 big beers each and more fod than we could all eat, it ended up costing us less thn a fiver each. You just couldn't spend your money. Last bit of shopping and a beer, and then bed for our long journey back to England the following day. A litre of fuel cost a Yuan, about 7 pence, i could fill the Vito up for about 6 quid! haha!



The trip back wasn't as bad as i thought, i watched some movies, ate some food, listened to music and journaled a few things, it was over before i knew it. Quick changeover to our connecting flight to Paris (where they left our bikes behind - nob'eds) and we were back in Manchester in time for tea!

The trip was over. I was happy to be home, but sad it was all over. It had been a trip of a lifetime with some awesome people, no real clashing and no aggro, even though i was diagnised a hot head by a Chinese doctor and Flem was diagnosed with kidney failure.. I'm sure thy were just on the hard sell!

I loved every minute, experiencing the sights and smells, the people, the food, the culture, the environment, the racing, the spectating, the vibe, the beer, the laughs. It was all just perfect, thanks to my roadies, you made it what it was.

Adelaide next year, yeah?!