I've just arrived in Aigle, Switzerland, for a training camp at the UCI centre ahead of the next SuperCross round in Copenhagen, Denmark next wkend.

The National at Cheddar was looong. The event looked super good and there were 585 riders or so in attendance across all ages so racing was pretty tough in most classes.

I got to the track saturday around 11.30am but wasn't due to start racing until around 6.30pm with practice for 45mins at 5.30pm. The other racing should have kicked off at 12noon but for whatever reason it didn't get going until well over an hour after that!!! Which meant that at the first race of the season we're already running late and that time had to be made up somewhere to make sure we were able to get all the elite racing done before it got dark.

It turned out that they cut practice down to 20mins for our group yet there were still 30-40min breaks happening between rd's throughout the day?!?! To me this seemed strange.
We all knew that it was gonna be tight to get all the racing done but because of over runs earlier in the day and starting late we had to run moto's every 10mins or so. Not the best situation but it had to be done. At the start of the first set of moto's it was decided (not by the riders) that we'd only run the 3 moto's that night, then the semi's and mains in the morning (i heard 8am!!!)
Then, it was decided to run the semi as there was enough light left....which was right. Then after the semi's were done it was decided that there wasn't enough light to run the finals.........although at this point all the riders (bar one or 2) were up on the hill willing to run the mains, but we weren't allowed.
Although i appreciate what the ref's were saying about risk, my belief is that you've got riders who are old enough to make decisions for themselves and were happy to ride, so if anything did happen then the buck would stop with us (the riders). BUT the ref was happy to let the PayBack final run (after all the discussions we all could've just raced!) because they're slower than the Elites and thus less risk but in my mind it's all relative to speed & control etc so there wouldn't have been a difference. The crowd didn't seem overly happy about the decision either.....cue the chorus of boo's.

At the end of the fiasco all the riders were down at the finish line to sort out how it'd run in the morning, it was decided (by the riders with officials present) that we'd run the saturday's finals as the first finals on the sunday. To which all the riders left the track knowing that was the case.
Then, on the sunday after the semi's where we'd start to warm up ready for the previous days final it was said that we'd run after the B-finals as the 1st A final.....again a change on what was decided the night before. To me the point wasn't that we'd run later it was the point that ALL the riders went away thinking one thing and then for some reason it gets changed again. If they wanted us to run after the B finals then it should've been said the night before...not 10mins before we thought we were up!!

Anyway, results wise, i got a 2nd behind LP when we eventually ran the saturday main and an 8th in the sunday main. I was running in 2nd until the last turn when Kelvin came up and passed me, i knew he was there, i just didn't no which line he'd choose. I edged my bets and went kinda middle but obviously there was enough room for him to come through, we touched in the turn but it was a good move so i can't be too annoyed.

TIBBOH, mine and LP's new title sponsor launched last wk and seemed to go done well at the national. There were a couple of dongle's handed out as prizes with a yr's free internet access provided.....can't beat that surely?!?!? Roll on the Pro Race at the Brits this yr, TIBBOH are gonna be looking to do a whole lot more at that race and the Brits itself so keep an eye out for info soon. There's more stuff to come from them this year and maybe even companies they've got ties with (there's some good un's in there!!)

Check back in a couple of days for a training camp update!!

Marcus