Positive start for CCM team
By TMX Archives on 14th Apr 10
Team CCM arrived in Bulgaria at the weekend fresh from national success to open its 2010 GP campaign. Saturday's qualifying race was a hectic affair for CCM giving both Stephen Sword and Tom Church 22nd and 19th places respectively.
This left both riders with a lot to do in the races and the results didn't get much better throughout the weekend with Tom opening his scoring with just four points and Stephen retiring from race one with a complete lack of energy.
CCM's Sporting Director, four-times World Champion, Dave Thorpe commented: "Today was a tough day for us, we have a lot to do to achieve our targets of top ten finishes. If you look at the quality of the MX1 class this year it could not be tougher. To see Tom racing around in the top 15 and then look at the quality of those behind him such as De Reuver and Strijbos further down the pack just confirms how tough this year will be.
"If we look at the positives from the weekend, Tom was riding at a good pace for the first 25 to 30-minutes and was moving forward towards that top ten place until he started to feel some pain from his finger injury. We can work on that and I have every confidence that we can reach our goal.
"It was a little different with Stephen. For the past month he has been complaining of a lack of energy and while the shorter Maxxis races do not highlight this so much, the longer GP races are a problem. Stephen had a blood test before Bulgaria which highlighted a virus. This is a virus that saps energy, we knew this before the trip, but wanted to see how it went at the race – but it took its toll on him.
"The doctors have advised complete rest for a couple of weeks so that Stephen is completely fit for the Maxxis round at Duns on May 2 and so I have decided to pull Stephen out of the next two GP's to allow just that.”
CCM Director Austin Clews commented: "We have to take positives from the weekend and know that we can build on this. It is unfortunate that Stephen has picked up the virus, but it is the right thing to rest him, as CCM's number one priority for 2010 is to win the Maxxis MX1 Championship.
"We will focus on Tom for Italy and Valkenswaard and do all we can to help him get those top ten results.”