After all the preparation you do for one of these trips its a bloody good feeling to check your bags in at the airport. After nearly 30 hours travel I made it to Rudolstadt Germany where harriet rucknagel and her brother kimma so kindly let me stay for the week, Thanks for helping me out again this year! It was a surreal feeling to be back there really. Sometimes you don't think too much about whats going on and it kind of feels like a series of uncontrollable events just led you to where your standing. But looking back its definitely a big achievement for myself just to have made it to this point. When i came home after last season I thought racing had me beat, I overcame some big obstacles over the past 12 months and to be here is success in my own right. So i have been here for just over a week now and already the first race is done and dusted. After spending the week in rudolstadt getting organised and putting some training together i fired up the one and only Super tranny for a short journey to Ilmenau. The Venue for my first race of the season a IXS German cup. Barely 10 mins after I got on the road i got pulled by the German police, This is a fairly common occurrence. It seems they just cant help but stop such a magestical vehicle to check its modifications. After being stopped several times last year I have got a good story sussed although these officers where very thorough and spoke great English. Got me sweating a bit but i sweet talked like only a kiwi could and managed to continue. Had to have a wee laugh, great start to the trip. So yeah made it to Ilmenau eventually and parked her up in some random forest for the night. Awoke the next day for first practise session, The course was kind of unusual it was really short and hard to find a good pace. Either seemed like you where going to slow or trying to hard. Managed to work it out for Qauli the next day and put together a smooth run sliding into 2nd position. I Let myself down in the end with a disappointing run in the finals on Sunday, 4 seconds back in 9th. I made costly mistakes and then tried to hard to make the time up which caused me to make more errors, That kind of snow ball effect. Initial feeling was of course gutting because i should have been on the box but this is the kind of shit the derailed me last year. Got to keep on the positive, Believe before you achieve. I showed good speed on the bike and the only thing that really brought down the overall quality of the weekend was the final run. Sounds wierd right? thats the only thing that counts? not at all. I achieved my race weekend goals and focused on controlling only what i can controll which is something i have struggled with previously. Got to keep my head up and focus on improving at the next one. I am back in rudolstadt now for a few days. Going to get some solid training done then head south For another IXS Cup in Wiriehorn, Switzerland.
Getting your equipment to the other side of the world is always abit of a headache. Heres a pic of the haul this year
Tranny. In all her glory. Parked up in some forest car park for the night, No worrys.
When i tell people i am going to travel around Europe racing i get the impression they think it sounds kind of glamarous... Think again! living in a van is messy at the best of times.
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