New website is up and running now - mb181.com

This past wk has been a little strange in the way that on the bike i've been fine and getting some good work done but with things like the gym i've still been suffering with a knee and elbow problem. As long as it's not effecting me on the bike i'm happy so right now it's all good.

I had a good wkend in Manchester with Kate, things are starting to get real now, she's starting to bring more and more gear up as it's her last day at work today!! She'll move in for real whilst i'm out in SA so hopefully the house aint pink by the time i'm back!!!

I'm really looking forward to getting out to SA now, we leave on wednesday night so we'll be there by thursday morning. Be nice to just relax for a few days in Durban before getting to Pietermaritzburg. The beach in Durban's pretty cool so hopefully the weather's good too.

Don't forget to check out my twitter........bloomy181

Oh, and my site should be active at some point tonight (just waiting for ma61.co.uk to get off the XBOX!!) so mb181.com will start going straight to that as of then!!!!

Marcus

I flew back form Norway on the Sunday morning and arrived back home in Bristol by about 2pm. Felt wierd to be home from a race when it was still going on but it was nice to get home.

Saturday's racing went ok other than the result (out in qrtr). I felt pretty recovered from the friday racing so that was a plus point for me. I had a tough moto which i'm kinda used to now but i was actually riding well although i was pretty lucky in the 2nd moto as i gotta bad gate and got squeezed out down the first straight only to swoop into 3rd in turn 1 whilst 3 others all crashed out, i'm due a bit of luck so i'll take it :)

Since getting back i've just chilled out and made sure i'm fully recovered before getting back into it. I've been out for sprints this morning which were real good and i'm off for a track session in a bit down at Burnham.

The website shouldn't be too far away now as all i'm waiting for is some pics to complete the gallery section. I'll keep ya posted

I've also joined onto Twitter recently, shant be updating all the time but you can follow me: bloomy181

Marcus

Woke up this morning feeling a lot better than I thought I was going to so that was a good start. Went out for a couple of rides in the morning to wake the old the legs up and went into practice in the afternoon feeling fine.

Moto’s went well, had the holeshot in 1st one but had a crap line into turn 1 so got passed down the pro sets to go into 2nd the I shanked the 3rd straight and got passed again so had to settle for a 3rd. 2nd moto I got out well again and took a 2nd. 3rd one I got squeezed out of the gate as I went a tad late and had to settle for a 5th I think.

I got 2nd in my quarter after getting out pretty well. I started to get squeezed into turn 1 so was happy to slot into 5th with a real good line and exit speed I was gaining on the guys in front only for Hamon to mess up the pro section and get in another riders way which opened the door for me to go into 3rd (we all need a bit of luck no and again). I swooped in the last turn go into 1st and was a photo finish on the line.

In the semi I got out real well but by the 1st turn it was all super tight and ended up white lining it and coming together with riders which meant I had no speed for the 1st pro jump, I boosted it anyway, why I don’t know as I’m pretty sure I came down with snow on my head I went that high!!!! Anyway, by then everyone had gone so that was that for the day. Overall I’m happy with how I rode, especially after not having such a good practice yesterday.

Off to bed now to rest up before we do it all again, we’re not on until the afternoon again so I’ll update around the same time tomorrow.

Marcus

Had a long day today. I left Kate's 7am to go to Heathrow to get the flight to Norway. You never really no what the traffics gonna be like so i left in plenty of time as the flight wasn't until 12noon. Ended up getting to the Airport around 9.30am after parking the car up and getting to the Terminal.
Has some time to kill once i got checked in so just walked around the shops checking out the watches then headed into Starbucks for a sweet White Choc Mocha......that's the boy right there!!!

I landed just before 3pm then hopped in a taxi and headed straight to the hotel. I've landed on my feet witht the hotel as it's literally 50m's from the 1st straight and i can see the last straight stand from my bedroom.....can't get any better than that!!!

Practice was at 6.30pm so just checked out the track until then. It looked a good layout and the design's pretty cool.
Practice went ok i guess, i'm still struggling with a couple of little niggles that i picked up before the national at Manchester last wk and have been bothering me all week and i think travelling all day showed but tomorrow's another day and we're not on until 2.30pm our time so i've got all morning to freshen up.

Marcus

I raced at Manchester last wknd for Rounds 7&8 of the National Series. The track rode really well all wknd even though the wind on Sunday was probably the worst i've ridden in there before.

I felt good going into racing on Saturday but we had slight delay on the first moto with Kelv having the wrong plate on. Events unfolded to the point that he staged a one man protest in the middle of the track (was pretty funny!) as he was told he couldn't race that 1st moto. I understand where he was coming from but the problem was that other people had the same issue(Amelia in the race before ours!!) and weren't allowed to race so to allow him to ride would've created a divide between Elites and everyone else. There was a problem with the lights which did allow him enough time to change the plate before the race BUT he was told before anyone realised there was a problem with the lights thats he couldn't race that moto. Again, i can see where he was coming from but in my eyes went about it all in totally the wrong way and i did speak to him about it during it all and after it all calmed down.

Back to the racing and we only had 2 racks again so was straight to the main. LP was in 3 with me in 4. I got a good pop and started to close him down. I thought i'd done enough just going into turn 1 but obviously not as he appeared from nowhere on the inside and took the lead. I felt close to him on the 2nd turn but after that he pulled a bit out of the turn and i was just a bit to far off him to make anything stick in the last turn. Overall i was pretty happy to take the 2nd behind him and make it a UPB top 2.

Sunday's moto's went fine. Again, straight to a main with LP in gate 1, KB 2, Cal 3 and me 4. I had a real good pop and strated to move across towards the inside. LP got out ok too i think as he started to move out and Kelv got caught in the middle of both of us. By the first jump i had a wheel or so but we were all super tight and came together on the take off of the next jump with LP and KB coming off worse. I unclipped and got caught from behind which ripped the buckle on my shoes to bit's but luckily got straight back in and just made sure i got into turn 1 first. I was confident that if i could do that then i'd win as i felt my track speed was good all wknd. I took the win ahead of Kyle and DW.

All in all a good wknd on a good track. Another well run national for the yr. Roll on Gosport in August......can't wait to ride 8!!!!!! straights!!!

I'm off to Norway tomorrow for the Euro Champs so i'll try an update whilst i'm there.

Marcus

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....