What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger

It’s been a week since getting home from Coppull and what a fun week, not. Everyone has pretty much drifted back off to uni so the rock is getting quiet. Mums been off work all week cos she’s been ill so I was chauffeuring her round on Wednesday n get a phone call from Charlotte, “I’ve got a puncture, what do I do?” Tbh it didn’t take much persuading to get me to take the half hour drive to save her, beats cleaning horses. So went and sorted that to the tune of “so do boys get special classes at school to learn this stuff?” gotta love saving the day ha. But the price I paid for ditching mum was I had to go for a horse ride with her on Thursday, it’s been about 8 years since I last rode, n I remembered why about half an hour into getting ready, it just takes so dam long, getting them in, feeding them, putting all the stuff on, it’s such a ball ache, but meant I got to spend some time with mum which was good.

Did some work at the track on Saturday to make it ready for the Manx Champs on Sunday, just tidying up corners and throwing some surface down but it made for good racing come the 1st moto. So I’d got Skillz to come down and give this whole BMX thing a go, he rides downhill mainly but also hits the track up on his hardtail, he’s mad fast and I lent him me crowser for the day. I won the 1st two moto’s, but just before the 3rd the gate failed so we did dead man starts off the top of the hill, Skillz and Stephen got better starts than me, I passed Ste round the 1st corner but couldn’t get 1st, 1.1.2. in moto’s, to Skilly’s 2.3.1. It was grand prix so I had the advantage going into moto 4, I won, but Skilly’s gonna get a cruiser, do some gates over the winter with me and I don’t think I’m gonna catch him next year. Hopefully he'll be hitting up some nationals with me next year, repping Team IoM. Pic's right and below from last weekend at Coppull courtesy of rhodopsin.co.uk

Do things come in 3's? 3rd year in a row I’m club champ, I love it. I got a THE plate and £15 for winning, and a pair of Fly gloves courtesy of Ramsey Outdoors for getting the holeshot in the main. Winners in the other classes where Matt Black in the 6 and under, Tom Murray in the 8 and under and Brandon Cain in the 10 and under age group. A big thanks to Mark at Groove Racing who donated some prizes for the holeshot winners, so you know where to go for all your BMX racing needs. Anne Crain a local MHK came down and watched the whole days racing, she presented to prizes and really seemed to get into the spirit of things.

And 3rd time in 3 days riding that I've come off. After racing I was riding the 1st straight, and managed to snap my chain, it was right at the bottom of the start hill and going over the roller so there was no staying on, I remember seeing the ground and inch away from my face as my helmet slid along the floor, I’ve got a black eye, a cut above my other eye, grazes all down one arm and wrist, the other wrist is mega sore and doesn’t really move, I’ve pulled the muscles around my left hip and cut my knee pretty bad, and what have I learned from it all? No more XC chains. This one has lasted about 3 months, you save a couple of grams but lose ultimate strength, and with a chain there is no warning, nothing you can do, once its decided to go, your off and going down big.

So I’m really sore and feeling sorry for myself, went to a pub quiz with the lads last night, we got 3rd, and free chips. I could hardly lift my pint though which sucks. Got more big track plans this week, things are pushing forward and I’m excited, had some dirt dumped today and got shouted at by the grounds keeper for the park, I’ll explain more next time. L8rs

Number plates

I can just see it now... "who's is that number plate? Its dead hard to read"
"its 110, thats Anthony Ives"
"ok, lets get him over and tell him because he's followed the rules and used big numbers that are a bit close it hurts my eyes." Gotta love it, ha. I'm pretty sure I heard Kelv gettin told off too, ha. The other good thing about number plates; just ordered 6 from mark at grooveracingshop.co.uk, for the Manx Champs which are happening this weekend, each catagory winner will get a #1 plate instead of trophies, cos lets face it, my shelves are getting slightly full ha. Cheers mark.

But back to the weekend, Thursday night I went out with everyone from back home before some of them went back to uni. Shauns back off to Leeds and Scott back to the Burgh, as well as other assorted locals town is gonna get very quiet in the next couple of weeks. So got back home about 11, got packed, went back out to nightlife to pick up my wages and finally hit the pillow at 2am, up at 0530 to make the boat and I was shattered. Met up with mum in Liverpool to do some shopping for work clothes and spend quality family time, I dont get to see mum enough so have to make the most of it when we're both at a loose end, plus it was her wallet that was out not mine. Went up to gates with mum at Coppull and rode, alot, being at home is great but boy my riding suffers. It takes about 20 laps to get confident to start to take off rather than 2. The track was riding sweet and I had a bed at Hotel Sutty for the weekend, whilst drifting off on Friday night I'd never have thought that I would be this close to a national win.

Saturday went good, moto's where ok and my 1st straight was keeping me in cruiser, a 2.2. in the 1st 2 moto's was ok, a bit of shoulder action with Kieron in the 3rd and an off and 5th left me with 7th pick for the main and an ice pack on my wrist. Gate 8 was open and to be honest I was counting my blessings, its way better than being on the outside. Snap, pull, power, next thing I know and everyones gone wide round the 1st corner and I'm side my side with Josh over the 3rd in joint 1st, he boomed the big step up and I couldn't get any pump off the downside, followed him round the 90 right and went up the inside to make the move, it didn't pay and left me too far back to compete for 1st in chaos corner. I quality race though, and fair play to Josh, the fastest cruiser yowth when he wants to be.

It was great staying with Roy and Co for the weekend, its such a relaxed vibe and a nice place to be, Shea is the best, always smilling and even helped me clean my ride on Saturday night. Jacob is the most modest British Champion ever even if he made me clean his bike too. The head of the house is obviously Dianne, ha, cheers for letting me stay. Sutty, well done on Sunday man, and cheers for everything, that girl in Liverpool wanted me and you know it.

Sunday wasn't so great at the track though, I had a big off in my 1st 19+ moto leaving me limping and with a huge need for a new set of race pants (thanks mum). So with the tags still hanging off my ass it was straight back up for cruiser, I only really wanted to qualify for the main so was just chilling, 3rd moto I put OJ off at chaos corner, sorry bud, couldn't resisit. Main time and I snapped ok, again from 8 but it didnt quite go the same, I got caught up in the bunch and was really hurting so ended up 6th and started shouting my mouth off over the finish line as Kieron had won, If you wanna read more on that its the last 2 paragraphs.

So I had a great weekend, thanks to Gav at bikevideos.co.uk for putting the 3 most important finals up first on Saturday night, cheers to Rich and Scott for the best comentary (you 2 on the mic are an unbeatable combination), thanks to the NEBMX crew for looking after my mum, she loved it, Reidy, cheers for letting me have a blast on the Dolan, rode sweet, cant wait till I get mine ;) and again, thanks to the Sutty's.

So see ya'll at Preston, I've got some fun to have.

So the controversy on Sunday regarding me and my big mouth, during one of my cruiser moto's I thought I'd heard Kieron's shifter working overtime, after hearing from a "reliable source" that his shifter didnt work I didn't think anything of it untill Dan P said he'd heard it too, so I went and asked Kieron was he shifting, he said yer! Whats he playin at? For one, he really needs to start hitting gates if he's using different gears for the start hill and the rest of the track if he's still getting pulled. The way I see it, no matter how close his bike is to a cruiser; 24" wheels, his "forks were pretty much locked out" and whether he's shifting or not, its still not a cruiser, its a mountain bike! My mates have seen pictures of Kieron racing before and think its wack, "what a 4Xer doing at a BMX race?" and these guys ride, let alone trying to explain it to the girls that dont understand the difference between BMX and downhill, "but its just riding bikes isn't it?" Yer it is, and I've never complained at regional level before, or even been that bothered when he's turned up at nationals, because I was under the impression that the reason he wasn't buying a cruiser was because he has no money, so assumed (yer i know, assumption is the mother of all fcuk ups) that he wasn't going to follow the national circus around, its an expensive game and all.

But now he can get a ranking and will probably push people who have supported the series all year round (OJ and Twarn) down a ranking place I think something needs saying. I'm pretty gutted for OJ to be honest, he's in 9th spot and needs a good result to move up to 8th otherwise he wont get anything to show for this year. Even if not OJ, there are 8 BMXers who've qualified for an end of year trophy, one of which wont get one because of Kieron. Anyhow, I was pissed cos he won, and I told him, better that than be one of these people that says stuff about people rather than too them. I'll be e-mailing the commission after Preston asking for a rule change, BMX should be looking forward and at a national level shouldn't want to rely on mtb's.

Written On Friday

Ok so, all the pictures are sideways, yer i know, i've been on the picasa website and tried to rotate them but it aint having any of it, just at hotel sutty and loving it, expect that write up another time, and i'll sort it out tomorrow, but for now if you recon your neck can take it, tilt to the right, and this is where i was at on friday...

You're Freakin Me Out, You Wore A Mask Called Counterfit

So went for the interview for this job as ESO at QEII yesterday, all tarted up n lookin pretty slick, i'm pretty young and inexperienced at this whole interview lark, never mind looking after kids with autism so knew I had it against me. Walked in, and was so nervous, they picked up on it straight away, "dont worry, we're not looking to trip you up". It was my first interview for a proper job so had nothing to gauge it against, it went ok I guess. They pointed out that my CV was written pretty badly but full of so much quality content that they couldn't pass me up and wanted to get me in to see if I could put what was on the paper into what they where looking for in the role. Loads of challenging questions and me being conscious of talking too much, it went ok. I headed over to Douglas to catch up with Charlotte who's just got back from the states, waited around all afternoon with her n Becky, nervously for the phone call, I only went and bloody got the job. So chuffed its mental, so now I've gotta wait for all the paper work to be sorted and I start in a couple of weeks. So yer, I'm 1:1 on the interview to job ratio scale, wooop.

In other news, its ERA this weekend, I think, there is stuff on the website but not much talk of it anywhere else. From the looks of it its part of a bike festival in Kingston Canada, in my eye's the way elite racing should be to get it to the masses. Go211 dont seem to be covering it, so I guess we'll have to find the video's next week. For more, obviously head over to BMXtalk to hear all the latest bull and e-heroes opinions. oooo I sound so bitter, but seriously, this event looks awesome with some great riders rumoured to be going, can Clayton still pull? His names not on any rider list I can find, but he's still Doc Smooth right? Well Cisar is gonna be there and that boy has mad skills.

Can't wait for Coppull, I know i'm not riding great but its just being there, I'm gonna love it, can go for a coffee with John B and watch some quality racing. Just been looking at Abi's pics and the track looks to be running smooth, cant find any video though so lets see how that last straight works, I've heard things but havent got any closer than the title pic, looks shrweet though. So the question is... One footer or about to fall off mate?

Its raining here, had 50 tonnes of dirt dropped at the track on wednesday and its gotta be dry before we can do anything with it, sad face. Big downhill race on sunday, no doubt i'll post pics. l8rs

From bad to worse... NOT

Just a quick one, I'm up at scotts watchin mtb DVDs, I've had loads of thoughts for my caddy but dont have one, which sucks. On the top of my head is that I've gone from being a no hoper uni drop out to, Junior Cycling Development Officer for the island and I've got an interview tomorrow for an Education Support role at QEII high school, seriously, I'd be soooo happy if I got it. all my worries would be gone. But dont wanna jinx myself so not gonna say too much, talking of jinx though, one of the favours i'm doing for mum this week is looking after one of her friends who's on holidays kitten, called jinx, how do i get roped into this stuff?

But on the bad side, mum went away for 2 weeks today on the 3 o'clock boat, I get a phone call at 1 from her whilst I'm at work; "can I borrow your car?" It appears that the gearbox has fallen out of the megan, a four day turn around and about £1200, so after abit of panic she did the sensible thing, and bought another car, yer thats 5 cars between the 3 of us now. WTF? I guess we'll sort it out when she's back. So other things on the list of stuff i'm doing for mum include, looking after her 2 dogs for the full 2 weeks, looking after someone else's dog this weekend :S sorting her horses for a couple of days, taking her boss out to the horses to make sure she is capable of riding, oh yer, and looking after this kitten.

Coaches night out was last friday, had a laugh with the guys, not many people turned up though, spent saturday recovering from a mammoth hangover and then worked till 4 at shiters, got covered in blue stuff as there where smurfs out for a mates birthday, and some 35 year old bird would not leave me alone, plus a girl i got with a couple of weeks ago was all "why havent you called?" its this small pond, i cant escape. This sunday coming is the Isle of Man Downhill national so I'm gonna go and marshal for scott and watch some mint racing apparently, they've built the course especially for the race so it should be a good one.

Anyhow, I've gotta go cram for my interview, anyone know anythin about ASD's?