Madrid didn't go well for me. We practiced on the Friday evening and that actually went better than i was expecting. My back was stiff at the start but the more i rode the more is losened off, it pretty much stayed painfull throughout the wkend but i was knocking back ibruprofen for fun to make sure it was gonna be ok come racing. Also, during the practice before we started racing, the gate decided to fail and send myself and 6 others sprawling. Just what i needed, a slammed ankle and wrist.

The least said about TT's the better. I think i missed the majority of landings and hit most of the soft patches, all in all.......bad times! ended up 17th after run 2, so 49th overall....that wasn't in the plan.
There's nothing like a tough moto for the first race of the season either, Strombergs, Robinson, Quyleron, Andre, Dodet, Bisseling, Myself and Godet's brother. Was a bit of mixed bag really, crashes, slide outs and me not racing that well meant i was having an early bath by the time the 1/4's came around.
LP on the other hand was flying all day. He looked real impressive in his motos only to tag the gate a little in his 1/4 which sat him in 3rd only to be knocked in the 2nd turn and crash. He was definatly on for the main in my view.

Seeing as though i've ridden the track, i might aswell give my thoughts on this new 'box' jump thing and the rest of the track. The concept of the box jump is good, BUT, the box was so tall, you couldn't maintain any speed whatsoever. It just felt clumsy.
I said as soon as i saw it that it needed to be 2-3ft lower and after riding it i'd stand by that. By making it lower, it'll still give the crowd something new, but from a racing point of view it'll keep the speed going, not to mention taking away some pretty nasty crashes.
Compared to other SX track's over the last couple of years, i thought the rest of the track was fairly tame. The first jump was tiny compared to the likes of Chula Vista and the 3rd straight was pumpable. I would've thought something similar to Frejus 3rd straight could've worked there.

I'm still getting over the wkend at the minute, travel and riding whilst ill certainly takes it out of you. The good news was that it wasn't an ear infection, the bad news is that it was a perferated ear drum.....nice. Still only about 50% hearing in my left ear as of now.

I've got some pics of my new race bike and a new Fox helmet that i'm gonna throw up on another post later

Marcus