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....

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

The past few days have been spent training back in Bristol. It's been real nice to be back home again as i've not been back for a long ish period of time for what feels like ages. Sods law though as my mum and dad have been away on there jollies for the wk and only get back tomorrow!!!

I've done a couple of sessions at Burnham this wk and it's been super strange riding in the evenings again (although i have done the odd session at Preston recently). They've just got a ProGate timing system for the gate, which i think'll be a really good training tool for the riders, that way at least they can monitor their progress throughout the season.

I'm heading back to Manchester on sunday to spend the wk up there training untill Kate comes up next wkend. Then it's off to Holland for the Euro rd that following wkend. I think this wk i'm gonna hit up Preston on Tuesday as sometimes it's good to do sessions away from the norm and just have a bit of fun.

Thats it for now, remember to register as a follower if you check my blog regulary!!

Marcus

These are some photo's that i've either been sent or that i've seen online from the race at Copenhagen last wkend. Check out the sites where the photo's came from for more cool pics!!

I've left it a while to update after the race last weekend in Copenhagen as it was a big race for me personally in regards to targets from BritishCycling. I didn't reach the target so it's meant that there's been some things going on behind closed which i won't/can't go into right now.

I actually felt that i raced well throughout the moto's and even in the quarter final that i went out in, i left a gap big enough for Jiminez to sneak into and that was that. Things could've been different but i guess thats racing.
On a positive note though, big congrats to LP who ended with a 2nd. He fully deserved to be on the podium and i was as happy as anyone for him!!

Since the race i've been going through alot of things in my head and been trying to stay positive about everything, i've actually had some really good sessions since so hopefully thats a sign of things to come.

I raced Rounds 3&4 of the UK National Series in Derby on the wkend. After all the timing issues at the Cheddar Rd's it was gonna be interesting as to how this would all turn out. I think it worked well in terms of the timings, the bad thing is that nobody stayed to watch. It's a catch 22, we want to showcase the top riders but we need to find a way to do it whilst everybody is actually gonna stay and see it!! I've always said that until it's run at a couple of races with the correct timings we won't no weather it'll work or not (on this showing, it'll need looking at). Did hear a whisper from a source that the officials are gonna sack it off though. Maybe they need to ask the riders (and i mean ALL the riders) how they feel about it and any other ideas that someone may have?? You never no, we might just come up with something.....

Back to the race, Saturday was good for me and the UPB team with a 2nd and LP in 3rd. Sunday, LP crashed in practice and shot off to hospital to get his shoulder x-ray'd so didn't race. JB won (again!), kelv 2nd and a 3rd for me. JB showed everyone why physically he's one of the best riders around right now (even if he doesn't get it out all the time!) and proved to the people who questioned what he was doing at cheddar that he hasn't lost it. Trust me, after seeing him in training over the past few wk's, he hasn't lost nowt, he's faster than ever....period.

I'm in the process of organising my trip to Valkenswaard for the Euro Rd in a couple of wk's or so. Hotel's sorted thanks to Jan Schippers, now just need to arrange the travel times. I'm doing this race without BC which'll be super strange as i've not done a International race without there support for around 4yrs now and seeing as the team will be there also will just add to the weirdness i think. I'm looking foward to it though as Kate's gonna be coming across there with me and Pete Phillips is going with our UPB team truck so it'll be like home from home.

Think that covers everything at the moment. Also, if you check my blog regulary it'll be cool for me if you could registar as a follower, i'd really appreciate it if you could do this as it'll give me an idea as to how many people actually want to no what's going on with me.....Thanks!

Marcus

Been back at the hotel the hotel for the last 2 hrs or so with feet up after having to do 2 runs AGAIN in TimeTrial's, that's the last 4 SX races!!!!
I over shot the first jump by loads in run 1 and lost speed, the rest of the lap wasn't too bad but after that mistake it was an uphill struggle to go through on that one.

Run 2 was good other than i've still not launched the triple into turn 1 yet, i've never been in a situation where i'm going into racing not having nailed everything on a track before, but we've got a some practice again in the morning before we start so plenty of time. It's not even that big a jump, it's one of those that you'll always feel that your never going fast enough. I lined up in practice before TT's this morning ready to do it only to get a puncture going to the hill and by the time i sorted that, they had shut the hill for the end of practice.....bad times!! I keep over shooting the first jump so i don't feel i'm set all that good for it, but after watching some riders do it today you can see you don't have to have had a perfect run into it in order to do it. The majority of people who were behind me time wise in run 2jumped it, so i no that my track speed in good enough.

LP had a decent TT and ended up 13th in run1 so was back at the hotel chilling out when i was having to go again.......must be an age thing!!

I'm looking forward to tomorrow's racing and just wanna get on with it now.

The pic above is from Jerry over at BMXMANIA.COM

Marcus

I arrived in Copenhagen yesterday afternoon along with the rest of Team GB. The airports only 10mins or so away from the hotel so the journey there was short and sweet. We checked in, unpacked, built the bikes and rode straight down to the track, which is about 5-10mins ride away.

The track looked really good. Last yr it looked ok too but this yr they've soiled tacked it all and it's super hard with no soft spots. They've moved the starthill back 10m's or so to make room for a couple of rollers between the 1st 2 jumps. First time it's been tried so time will tell if it's a good idea.

We've just got back from practice and the track rode really well. The wind was a strong head wind down the 1st straight so the triple into turn 1 can wait until tomorrow's session. The 3rd straight, even with the wind was really good and the 2nd straight was sooo fast with a tail wind the jumps could've easily been 10ft longer.

I felt real good on the track and my gates seemed good so i'm happy with how it went. I'm looking forward to practice in the morning and then TT's later on in the day.

Check back for TT update tomorrow

Marcus

I'm sitting at the gate waiting for the flight home back to Bristol. I crashed this morning and grazed my arm aswell as my ass! So sitting down isn't the easiest thing to do right now so a 2hr flight is just what I need! :)

This weeks gone well in terms of getting out of it what I needed to. It took a day or so to get over the race at cheddar last wkend but once it was out of the system physically it was all good. We all got some good track time in which was nice and I did some times on the starthill, as did last October before the SX race in Frejus and my times were pretty much the same so was happy with that. To match those times so early in the season was a bonus.
The weather had been really good all week until today when we had a bit of rain, it was properly hot when we did some sprints the other day. I've never sprinted on a hill that steep before, it must've taken 150m just to stop at the end of an effort!!!!

Just had last boarding call so update again in a couple of days

Marcus

These pics are from a photoshoot i did along with the GB Team for promo gear for sponsors. Photo's are by BC photgrapher Luke Webber, pretty handy with a camera that boy!!

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

So, only one day to go until the National Series kicks off down in Cheddar. The track rode pretty well last night and I'm headind back down in a bit to try some new bike parts out before the race.

Since the last update I've just been training and really trying to work on some stuff that needed sorting, we'll see if it works soon enough no doubt. I've been up to Preston a couple of times recently for a change of scenary, the whole atmosphere when there's gates on is really good and the people who are involved up there are real sound and always make you feel welcome. Plus there's some super fast kids up there too so I'm looking forward to seeing how they go this wkend.

Something else of note, TIBBOH launched yesterday so it won't be long until everybody see's the benefits of using them. Check the link on the right to see what's up or google TIBBOH and see the press releases from yesterdays forums and newspaper!!