Photo - Paul Whibley
Photo by - Andy McGechan:
Hi
I have only done one race since I last wrote (well almost but I will get to
that soon).
The race was Round 2 of the Fast Eddy Cross Country Series.
The race preparation started on Thursday, with Eddy and myself driving up to the
venue (Tong Village) to design and start building the track. Part of the
perks I guess because the series is run by the company, Fast Eddy
Organisation. But as any organizers out there will tell you, a lot of work goes
into an event. So Thursday and Friday for me was taken up with arrowing,
taping and chainsawing a track.
Saturday saw the Quads rip up my poor track to bits. Dust was going to be
the problem this round.
Sunday was clear, hot and dusty.
The clubmans race in the morning churned up any fresh lines between the trees
that the quads couldn\'t get to. So the track was rough when we started our
pro race, which was fine by me.
The start did not go quite to plan. The bike failed to fire first kick and
as the second row came past me they clipped my bars, knocking me off
balance. I got the bike fired up and began passing riders through the dust.
About half a lap in, after passing most of the riders in the field I came
a guttser (literally). In the dust I hit something on one of the fast
sections and wiped out hard, landing on something on the side of the track.
It hit me in the lower abs. I jumped straight back on the bike, but soon
realised I could no longer race. I rode back to the pits really gutted
about being out of the race.
The injury was damage to muscle, I just couldn\'t use my abs to move my body
around.
Anyway, now I just hope I am able to ride Sweden in 2 weeks, time will tell.
Paul