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!!