things getting tough

the last 5 weeks have been hard, working, training, racing and rearing pups! not your obvious combination ; )

the day after clapham junction was hit by the riots i woke up with a crooked back and could hardly walk or stand up for long. no physios were available that day due to the riots and ultimately led me to calling patsy 530 the following morning to say i could not make it to dunkirk - all my kit was laid out ready to go so that i could bike down to dover and meet the crew for another day training in the dunes, and this time on a ktm 525, my future dakar bike. it wasn't to be : ( i knew patsy would not be impressed, but i've never been in such pain and for the next 2 weeks, i saw the physio nearly every other day. upshot was that laura penhaul and sam wilde from puresports got me back on my feet, enabling me to compete the following weekend in the beacons rally and the weekend after in the d2d 24hr enduro.

i took the 950 down to the beacons rally, stopping over at mum's in malmsbury on the friday night. early start got me to llandovery for 830am saturday morning. wearing my rally gear plus an additional goretex jacket as it was raining - i was in wales; funnily enough, i was dry until i crossed the severn bridge!! pats had the porridge ready and there was just enough time to get a few bits together before we headed off to the hills for scrutineering. it pissed it down for most of the day, but the riding was good. plenty of fast and windy tracks, with 2 excellent special tests, each lasting a good ten minutes, plus an optional section to provide some muddy rut practice.





















the first half of the day we had blinding rain, you couldn't wear your goggles as it was like driving without wipers , but without the goggles your eyeballs felt like they were being stabbed by a thousand needles, you couldn't win!! but by the afternoon the rain cleared away bathing us in sunshine for the ride home. back was sore throughout, but only when standing. so when we arrived at the checkpoints and had to wait, i either remained sitting on the bike or stood, slumping over the seat; really odd, really uncomfortable.





















woke up to a smattering of rain, so the few items i had left out to dry were wetter than before. but fortunately the cloud covering was light and not before too long, the sun came out and remained with us for the day. we covered much of the same route, just in the opposite direction, plus instead of 2.5 laps, we had 3 laps to do. it's a tight course for a big bike rally, which when riding with patsy and steve hague for one part of the course, was a lot of fun. even had a chance to chat with steve about his dakar experiences and preparation while waiting for a special to start; a long way from the bmw training course where i met him originally. Scores: 7th day 1 and 6th day 2.

although the sun was out, there was still plenty of mud and water around!

as soon as the race was over i headed back to the campsite to get packed up so i could head home to the cottage as early as possible to see chobe and the pups. the 100 or so mile journey along the a40 on a bike is awesome, but it still took 2 hours on 2 wheels. by 6pm i was back, in time to see ali and stu, the stud dog owners, who were visiting. they were really impressed with the pups and chobe's condition, so that was great to hear for both myself and fiona. i stayed up with chobe and the pups for as long as possible as i knew i was going to see very little of them over the following 2 weeks.