I raced Burnham regional last wkend because i needed to keep in some sort of race mode with the worlds just around the corner. My old man even came to watch but on the pretense that i rode hard on every lap and pedalled to the line....burnham's no joke with 20mins between laps on a hot day i can tell you but still felt good after and was nice to put another race into the bank.

This past wkend i had Curtis, Tom Palmer, Stacky and Amelia up to stay for a couple of days or so. We headed to Manchester track on friday afternoon for a bit of practice before the national this wkend. Friday evening was FIFA10 time on the xbox and i don't mean to brag but with scores of 10-2 and 9-1 being knocked out i had the young un's covered.
Saturday morning we headed to a play track in Wilmslow, one of Clark & Kents creations and stayed there for a couple of hours. It's only 2 straights but it's done as a loop so you can just go round and round. It was pretty fun just to ride with no worries and just have a laugh with friends.
In the afternoon we went on down to Crewe for a couple of hrs. The track was riding real fast and smooth and we even managed to get some gates done as the guys from the club set it up just for us so we were happy about that.

Kate was staying in Birmingham on the Saturday night so i headed down there after Crewe. We stayed in the Regency Hyatt for the night and her parents took us out for a celebration dinner and cocktails (only had 1 or 2 though)

This wkend is Manchester National and then i'll be straight into the Euro Race in Norway next wkend. I'm really looking forward to this next couple of wks because as good as training is, you can't beat racing!!

Marcus

Things have been moving on with the website thanks to Matt Allen over at MA61.co.uk. We've come up with a design and just sorting out the little bits and pieces before it goes live.
With the help of Charlie Phillips (cp signs) I've come up with a logo that'll sit on the site and I've shown it to some riders at Bristol and burnham already and the response was pretty good. 

Trainings be good since the wkend and I'm gonna be racing the regional at burnham this Sunday before heading back up to Manchester on Monday for the first time in what seems like months! 
I'm looking forward to getting back up there and starting to get stuff sorted ready for when Kate moves up in July.

Marcus    

This past wkend i was at rounds 5&6 of the National Series over in Braintree. It was the first time i've been there and was well impressed with the whole set up. The track looked good at first sight and rode even better, it's not often i go to new tracks and like them straight away but this one was really good to both race on and mess around on.

I did a bit of practice on the friday evening which went well. I could've spent hrs trying lines on the 3rd straight but had to control myself as last time i sessioned a straight like that at a race, it was the Brits at Peterborough 2yrs ago and i was spent by the time racing came round.

They'd done away with the bloc racing idea (for now) so it was back to the norm for our group. It actually worked quite well and the running of the event itself seemed pretty seemless.

There was only 11 riders in elite so that meant no semi's which in terms of workload sounded fine to me :)
Saturday's main was a good one for me. I wheelied out of the gate and was held out by Kelv down the 1st straight. He left a gap on the inside of turn 1 and i just went for it, luckily it paid off and i went on to win.
Sunday i felt pretty fresh atfer racing the previous day so was looking forward to another few laps. I won the main from start to finish, i had a solid lap with no mistakes....which makes a change from recent races!!

I want to say thanks to everyone who showed support over the wkend with regards to recent going's on with BC. It's much appreciated. I will say though, as much as people like to slag off BC, at the end of the day when you take away any emotions and look at things logically, i had targets which i didn't reach and if it was any other business i'd be in the same position as i am now. Yes, i'm annoyed and yes i'm upset but thats life and i'm lucky that they've left the door open if things change in the future so that's what i have to concentrate on from here on in.

Matthew Allen is in the process of sorting me out a website. MB181.com will be live soon hopefully but in the mean time that address will direct you straight to this blog. So instead of the normal blog address, you can just use MB181.com

I'll keep you posted on things in a couple of days

Marcus

Mark over at Evolimages has sent through some cool pics from last months SX race in Copenhagen. I think pretty soon we'll be getting together for a proper shoot which'll be real good! Check out the pics....

There's a few things to update on since my last post.

First off, i'm now officially engaged to Kate!! No immediate plans to set any dates but super happy to say the least!! She had no idea i'd had the ring she wanted since January so was pretty surprised went that bad boy came out last monday!!

I've mentioned before about things happening with BC. Well, to simplify it, i've been released from the programme but the doors open if results improve in the future. I'm not overly happy about it to put it bluntly but i guess thats life and there's nowt i can do to change things other than go out and get the results i need. Time will tell....

I went across to Valkenswaard this past wkend to race the euro rd. Lets just say that i didn't ride the best and the results showed that. I went out there thinkng that all the crap thats gone on for the last few wks would help me but it just all blew up in my face. Spent the wkend feeling worn out from it all. After speaking to Kate, LP and Shinny, I realised i wasn't in the best frame of mind to actually race at all. I was gutted saturday night and on sunday's journey home.
I've had time to think things through since being home and have put things into perspective so i'm looking forward to my next big races which'll include Braintree National this wkend, Manchester National, Norway Euro Champs and finally the Worlds in SA.
I've managed to get in with the ZellTours party for the Worlds so that should be pretty fun.

Under the main picture at the top of the blog should be a link to my YouTube page. I've put up a video i put together, isn't anything fancy and it's my first try at doing it so i hope it's ok? Let me no what you think......

I've had some new gear sent through from FOX this wk. They've sent down some new gear bags and some training T's (as i can wear my own gear from now on!). The bags are real sweet and i'm pretty sure i could sleep in one of them, it's that big!!!!

That about does it for now and i'll try and get back on it with more regular updates from now on

Marcus