Going the Distance!
By TMX Archives on 16th Jul 06
It's been a tough month on the road for Billy with long-haul flights, 10-hour drives and a broken hand. Oh and he managed to win a GP as well! Right guys, working backwards we'll start at Landrake! The track was awesome - apart from the old-school massive white chunky wooden posts that I battered my hand with on the first lap of the first race! We really need to get this stuff sorted. I don't want to be the one to moan but I broke my hand! Not too serious - just a cracked fifth metacarpal - but, still, it's a niggling injury I can do without and it's hurting right now so I'm gonna be riding on painkillers for the next few weeks.
The other weird thing was that there was no tape round the track so as you exit a corner all you see is little white dots leading up to the jump. It's like looking at a join-the-dots picture with no lines! So it was really off-putting and I think it was a problem that caused most of the big crashes jumping out from the field. You would be coming out the corner and jumping blind because you had no sense of direction from the track markings! Something we have to make the clubs aware of I think. But, anyway, the track was in excellent condition so if those problems are ironed out for next year then it will be wicked.
Next up, Japan! Guess you have all heard about Japan, or will in this issue anyway, so I'll talk a little bit about the trip. Outbound I had the luxury of four seats to myself in cattle class! I lay there the whole flight, stretched out, watching movie after movie. It was nice, I hadn't had 12 hours on my own like that in ages so it was really cool to kick back and relax for once.
The journey back was a complete contrast! I thought I would be really clever and waited until I was last guy on the plane and see if there were any business class seats up front.
The plan worked, I was on and strolled straight into business and took a seat next to an Indian lady. Things were good, I had 'beat' the system and all the other Brits in cattle class were annoyed I had the balls to do it! So there I was, sat there being offered drinks every five minutes and liking some of the legroom. Not £300 worth of legroom may I add but since it was free I felt satisfied!
As the flight took off I felt happy, sat there with my reasonably sized seat, sharing conversation with some well-travelled Indian woman who loves her mum's curries...but as the flight got through the first hour I realized she was actually a bit annoying and this legroom was definitely not worth the money or even the effort I put into claiming my free seat.
The cramps and headache started setting in from dehydration after two hard 40-minute motos, a six-hour bus drive and still no sleep and my eyes started to hurt from being over-tired, the sticky sweating sensation when you get angry. Any position I moved into was uncomfortable. Frustration began to build, my knees kept hitting the seat in front of me, my neck was sore and my jeans were starting to pull the hairs out my legs!
You might think the few days after winning a grand prix are full of enjoyment and happiness...wrong! It's hard work winning a GP, every ounce of effort goes into it and I was knackered! This time it led to a sense of humour failure!
I'm not really fond of Japanese food either (not that I can eat it either because of my allergy). I had my bag packed full of all my gluten free food, 8kg of it! We rocked up at the airport and all of our baggage was too heavy and being Virgin Atlantic it was £42 for every kg over the weight allowance! This was proving a huge problem as our combined weight was near 91kg - 91x42=£3822! Yes, that's right, they were trying to charge us nearly four grand for all our stuff!
So a quick phone call to Nick who had dropped us off and we quickly off-loaded some spares. I managed to play the guilt trip card with my food and told them I would die without it so the nice man let me off! In the end Steve's card got spanked for £700. We didn't tell him until we landed in Japan!
And finally, Germany! Germany was the first time I got my bike working the way I wanted. Everything was sweet and for me to get fourth overall on that track was like winning! Every time I've been there I've left with a broken bone so I was happy to come away with a decent result and some confidence in the bike. It's been the turning point of the season so far because I've been feeling awesome on the Yamaha since then. Andrew Bell has worked his nuts off getting my suspension right and without any technical back-up we've done a great job.
I flew out to Germany but I wished I hadn't. It took me nine hours from when I left my house to arriving at the track and to fill those nine hours was a nightmare. Waking up ridiculously early, driving tired, waiting at the airport, catching buses from long stay parking. It was rubbish! I would have given anything to be sat driving my camper at a leisurely pace listening to some decent tunes. Definitely not flying anymore, it sucks!
So on the way back I got a lift with Jason Dougan and his mechanic and we had a really good time. We were all in a big convoy with RWJ, Hucklebridge etc and we all had walkie-talkies! What a laugh, the whole 10 hours or so driving was taken up with piss-take accents, slagging each other off and pure torment *chuckle*! It even makes me laugh now thinking about it. Huck was on the receiving end of most of the slagging, bless him! Poor old monster!
Anyway folks, I'm gonna rest my little hand now. I feel like Jeremy Beadle! But the swelling should be gone before the weekend hopefully and another long trip to Bulgaria!
Till next time, everyone better be behaving themselves or I'll tell my dad on you all.