Saturday 31 May 2008

They get china, i get the isle of man

So been back home since Wednesday, was pretty worried I'd get bored quickly, two and a half hours in and it happened, I was like, rrrrrrrright so what do i do know? Its all good though, after an initial slump i was getting occupied left right and centre, after the obligatory evening in the pub with the lads I could get into planning the next few days. Went for a run on the beach on Thursday morning with the dog which was cool, and then helped mum out doing some stuff at the yard shifting fences and all that man stuff she leaves until i get home.

Friday morning I went over to where there used to be some trails before uni, well i say trails, but they're more bumps with gaps in the middle, hey roy? ha. was OK though, people have been there and doing a bit but they just seemed in need of some TLC. So after 2 and a half hours with a spade the 1st 3 where looking pretty smooth. Heading up there later today to see how they ride so, woop woop.

Hit up Douglas last night to enjoy the atmosphere and catch a mates band. The prom got busier as the night went on, was going pretty good, we saw wheelies, doughnuts, endo's, 2 Lamborghinis, a Ferrari, ourselves on telly and boobs, love it. Headed up to the pub after that to see a mate from schools band, Uber Room, and without sounding too much like a massive cliche, check out their myspace. The supporting act are also pretty good and I know a couple of the guys, check them at On A Friday Space. Turns out that they wernt supporting at all and the only sign of Uber Room was Brian rocking away in the crowd, had a catch up with him and he assures me they will be playing somewhere in the Isle of Man in the next week, where n when, who knows?

Today is the 1st race of the TT and my house is on the inside of the course so i'm either in, or out for the day, out it is, the trails are calling me. The sun is out, and nothing is gonna get me down. As i write this Shanaze has just won the worlds, well done girl. Kelvin made quarters and in turn should have just qualified GB for an Olympic spot, lets hope so. Today is a good day. Big shout to all the other GB guys who did well this week, Flem W2, Andy Shaw W3, Ivesy W5, DH.com W1, Hilly W5, Marco W5.

Tuesday 27 May 2008

I'm going home now

I'm off to the rock 2morow, and still haven't packed properly, its 0120, I've got to be up at 5 to drive to Liverpool and my room looks like a bomb site
Its all good though, today was down at EIS again doing much of the same from yesterday but experimenting with gears, all was good until i got back to Leeds at about 7 and realised i had the key for the laser timer in my bag, uho, a quick call to EIS later and Pete is going to drop it off on his way back down south tomorrow night, cheers man, much respect.

So yer, going home, its crazy, i haven't been back since Jet was put down, although he was a massive scary dog to some he was turning into one of the family and its gonna be strange without him about, what else has changed? mum's bought leather sofa's, new car, the track has changed apparently, there will be 60.000 bikers then when i get back, i guess the weather will be great one day then rubbish the next, but that's same old.

Keep checking back for blogs and things, although they will most likely be less frequent and pretty definitely be dam boring, I'll be back as soon as i can though, cant have Twarn ruling the north for too long.

Testing Talent

So Yesterday I headed off down to EIS in Sheffield to meet up with the talent team guys and guests to do some more prep work. This camp has got a strong emphasis on testing so it was all about getting your best times on the sprint straight. So this was each rider doing 60 meter efforts of the start gate with split times every 10 meters being measured. After that we had some time left over on the track so they did some 10 meter efforts just to get their snap on, Dan wasn't impressed with his times so decided to go for it and really get the fastest time he could, so... this happened

The funny thing was, it did improve his 10 meter time, it shouldn't really have with wind resistance not meaning that much at that stage, its all in your head Dan, but if you can do it here you can do it on the gate next to bloomy. Headed to the gym after that for some more testing, its all pretty basic but gives a good measurable indication of physical strength. I think we sometimes forget that this is as much of a sport if not more than other mainstream disciplines and we are athletes, so stick some salad on your plate and put another plate on the squat rack.

catch ya'll later

Sunday 25 May 2008

What to say

I'm gonna put it out there before all the bitching starts, I didnt race today because I was scared. Crewe track is huge, with really lippy take off and MEGA sharp downsides, even rolling out of the gate i was finding it hard to hit the downside of the 2nd jump when manualing it. I pulled out of racing after practice, I've got a busy couple of days coming up, didnt want to really push it and come off, and at the other end of the scale I didnt want to just roll round at the back making up numbers. Its not all bad though, abi can make even me look good(ish)

So the track and all that, its just really hard work, as a track to learn how to jump there isnt a better one but I thought the racing sucked, Wozza and DC went big over the pro section so i guess that was the big show people where after but there wasnt any tight racing that i saw. The locals killed it, fair play to them, they ride there all the time and it really showed with a couple of the teen riders really ripping up their classes. Dave Swain had a nasty crash on the 3rd straight when manualing the 3rd set his top and downtube snaped clean off at the weld in his 2nd moto and he's broken his collar bone, get well soon man, give me a txt and let me know your OK.

So Wozza took the win, with Levi 2nd, DC 3rd, Cal 4th, Boota 5th, Sharpy 6th, Snazel 7th and Peebz 8th, well done on ur 1st main Josh. Check out BMXtalk for all the debating you want converning the track, im sure there will be loads of idea's and opinions, cal has said it best so far with his idea, "if long nice bowled out landings were made for some of the jumps with short steep landings, it would work much better, without losing the radness to be had out of a session." Seems a good compomise.

Went to manchester track on the way back to just have a look around, looking really cool with loads of different types of jumps to keep everyone happy, Horticon dont quite seem to have found a happy medium yet with downsides tho, with a couple of really flat ones :s I'm looking forward to riding it, HUGE first corner, loving it. Rotherham or bolehills tomorrow morning anyone?

Wozzaaaaa


Warren wins payback, levi 2nd, DC got 3rd with a wicked number plate, strickers 4th and homeboy boota gets a 5th. I'm off to manchester, l8rs

Final time


The north east's john butterfield repping the new club hoodie and lookin smooth. According to john "its been a good turn out by those that got here". His youth dan has just won all 4 moto's. Well done kid.

Crewe BMX


Here at a wet and windy crewe at the north regional, i've pulled out of racin and so has oggy, whats call up man Ethan got to say about it. "only women don't race a national standard track, can someone bring the sun back" he's also saying the gate not coming up is levi's fault ha. Check his blog later at tethal.blogspot.com. Stay tuned