TMX SAYS: The excitement for AX is building

The north has taken aThe north has taken a reet battering this past week with endless rain and the resulting floods causing havoc across Cumbria, Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Yorkshire. Fortunately, Morecambe has stayed relatively dry throughout and the power is still on. Phewsh!

I'm genuinely really excited about this series as the international line-up is truly stunning and the tried and tested formula of the show really works for both purists of the sport and casual fans. Basically a good night is guaranteed and unless the guy sat next to you gets a bit buck wild and spills his bucket o' cola then dry shoes are guaranteed at the end of it all too. Happy times!

To clarify just how good a starting line-up there is I'm gonna throw some names at you. Starting the series as unofficial favourite has to be three-time X Games gold medallist Josh Hansen who is amazingly gifted on a motorcycle and brings bonafide star quality to the series. 

A few big question marks hang over Lil' Hanny's head though and they are whether the Californian can stay motivated through the full tour with all this crappy British weather, if he can cope with the transition from huge American stadiums to tight British arenas and finally if he can survive the entire series without getting taken out too many times as I think it's fair to say he'll have a fairly huge target on his back which can get tiresome.

The French contingent is likely to feature prominently too. The revolution is led by reigning champ Thomas Ramette and 2014 vainqueur Fabien Izoird. But former main event winners Cyrille Coulon and Florent Richier should not be forgotten and series newbie Cedric Soubeyras is quite possibly the fastest of the lot of them on current form at least.  

Inaugural tour champion Adam Chatfield leads the British boys into battle and he'll have Jack Brunell, the Bayliss brothers, Jake Shipton, Jordan Booker, Ashley Greedy, Shane Carless, James Dunn and Paul Coates also representing the Union Jack. Coates in particular is one to watch out for as he's spent much of his life living and training in the US and has proved that like Chatfield he can run the pace in the AMA SX series. 

Other guys to look out for include well-known internationals Harri Kullas, Angelo Pellegrini, Mike Brown, Filip Neugebauer, Jake Vella and Daniel McCoy. All in all it's an amazing entry list with – by my reckoning – at least five potential champions and 12 guys who could easily win a main event. Of course, first they have to get to the main event as qualifying itself is gonna be quite a task! 

So Manchester Arena at 7pm on Saturday night – that's January 2 – is definitely the place to be. I'll see you there! reet battering this past week with endless rain and the resulting floods causing havoc across Cumbria, Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Yorkshire. Fortunately, Morecambe has stayed relatively dry throughout and the power is still on. Phewsh!

Although the weather forecast still isn't looking too great I can honestly say I'm not too worried about it really as for my first work outing of 2016 I'll be polishing the Canon and heading to Manchester Arena – which is perched right on top of a hill so should remain flood free – for the opening round of the Monster Energy Arenacross tour.

I'm genuinely really excited about this series as the international line-up is truly stunning and the tried and tested formula of the show really works for both purists of the sport and casual fans. Basically a good night is guaranteed and unless the guy sat next to you gets a bit buck wild and spills his bucket o' cola then dry shoes are guaranteed at the end of it all too. Happy times!

To clarify just how good a starting line-up there is I'm gonna throw some names at you. Starting the series as unofficial favourite has to be three-time X Games gold medallist Josh Hansen who is amazingly gifted on a motorcycle and brings bonafide star quality to the series. 

Survive

A few big question marks hang over Lil' Hanny's head though and they are whether the Californian can stay motivated through the full tour with all this crappy British weather, if he can cope with the transition from huge American stadiums to tight British arenas and finally if he can survive the entire series without getting taken out too many times as I think it's fair to say he'll have a fairly huge target on his back which can get tiresome.

The French contingent is likely to feature prominently too. The revolution is led by reigning champ Thomas Ramette and 2014 vainqueur Fabien Izoird. But former main event winners Cyrille Coulon and Florent Richier should not be forgotten and series newbie Cedric Soubeyras is quite possibly the fastest of the lot of them on current form at least.  

Inaugural tour champion Adam Chatfield leads the British boys into battle and he'll have Jack Brunell, the Bayliss brothers, Jake Shipton, Jordan Booker, Ashley Greedy, Shane Carless, James Dunn and Paul Coates also representing the Union Jack. Coates in particular is one to watch out for as he's spent much of his life living and training in the US and has proved that like Chatfield he can run the pace in the AMA SX series. 

Other guys to look out for include well-known internationals Harri Kullas, Angelo Pellegrini, Mike Brown, Filip Neugebauer, Jake Vella and Daniel McCoy. All in all it's an amazing entry list with – by my reckoning – at least five potential champions and 12 guys who could easily win a main event. Of course, first they have to get to the main event as qualifying itself is gonna be quite a task! 

So Manchester Arena at 7pm on Saturday night – that's January 2 – is definitely the place to be. I'll see you there!