the busy month of may

since the tunis, a lot has been happening at home and on the bike.

tunis rally start line




















in the past 16 days i've competed in 2 hare and hounds, 1 open track day and today's training in dunkirk. so chobe has met her stud and mated, four times.

i've set up a twitter account which i can update from mobile texts, updating facebook and my blog at once.

and most importantly i have applied for the 2012 dakar and the deposit has been paid. i now have to sit and wait for my acceptance. i've had so long to prepare it was crazy to find myself under pressure to complete the cv and online application form.

ashby de la zouch on may 22nd, first h&h since tunis and the combination of motocross track and mega tight woods was a contrast! couldn't understand why my arms were pumped after the first lap until i remembered i had the rear suspension fully wound up and the front forks hardened for desert riding, nothing like good preparation!!

come on!!!


all went well until the last quarter mile where i took off out of a berm and into the trees! letting go of the bike to avoid embedding myself into ashby forever, i had to avoid straddling a young sappling (a tree you wierdos!!) and in turning, my right glut took the full force of the impact and i stopped dead, the whiplash concussing me (not wearing my neck brace that day!). knowing i had hurt myself, i was slow getting up, but back on the bike i thought i would be ok; well i was, sort of, i just couldn't remember where i was and although i knew i had been riding here, i did not recognise any of the track, f*&$ing strange feeling, and that as when i realised i was concussed and knew that i'd be ok if i could just follow the trail, trouble was i did not know why i riding, just knew i had to get to the end!! somehow i had the wit to try to start remembering what i was doing, where i was going etc, i managed to retrieve my car keys from the spare parts stall, find the car with chobe(!), pack, load the bike and remember that i was on my way to meet the breeders with whom i was to leave chobe with later that day.

i remember looking at the st john's ambulance thinking that i aught to check myself in, but i knew that they would only tell what i didn't want to hear.....needless to say, i made it sutton in ashfield, met the breeders, managed to convince them that i was a responsible person/ dog owner and returned to bibury. by the time i got back to london that night i had driven 570 miles in two days, so good dakar training! oh and my right glute was pretty sore, a deep haematoma was diagnosed by the physio 10 days later, as the neurofen and arnica had still failed to bring out the bruise for the first 6 days!

jago and i paid 200 euros for these shots!!


raced in exmoor the morning after sister polly's 21st. ben had cooerced me into riding this event and what a mission! pissing with rain with zero visibility, we raced an 11 mile circuit of the national park, riding over woodland, green pastures, deep bogs, very steep and very long descents on trail tyres, which was a new experience for me and a ruddy nightmare in these conditions. first lap took me an hour, second lap 1hour 20mins, but managed to get my act together and complete the final lap in 40mins; achieved only because the race organisers had decided to block off 2 slopes from the circuit. we were both covered head to foot in mud and grass and each of us spent about 12 quid on the power washers trying to clean the shit off the bikes.

who needs goggles?!


"how much to clean my bike? you're avin a laugh!"

the dakar cv