Jake Nicholls is back!
By Sean Lawless on 9th Mar 16
Jake Nicholls was back in action at Preston Docks on Sunday at the opening round of the Michelin MX Nationals and the Hitachi Revo Husqvarna rider came out swinging, taking the holeshot in the opening Pro race.
Jake, who's suffered a string of injuries over the past two seasons, was sporting standard graphics and kit for the race but showed an anything but stock turn of speed to follow Buildbase Honda's Graeme Irwin home in second.
"I haven't been here for 11 years and I didn't recognise the place when I got here," he said.
"I wanted to go racing before Lyng and this was my only chance really.
"I could do a Dutch championship race next weekend but that would be even more disorganised.
"I've been riding since January and it's been going all right but I'm still on a totally standard bike.
"I've got the suspension but I still haven't tested with it yet. We've booked a test on Wednesday in Holland but it's under water there so I don't know whether I will or not.
"The bike's pretty unbelievable as standard but we've been on the back foot a bit.
"I went to New Zealand for five weeks but [when I came back] I didn't get a bike until February 10 so it was pretty late but I don't care as long as I've got a bike. It's not really anyone's fault."
A bad start in the second race saw Jake as far back as 35th on the opening lap but he looked fast and fit as he pulled through to 11th at the flag.
"My fitness is getting there. I'm still trying to build up because I had such a bad run but I'm enjoying it.
"I got arm-pump in the first race and rode a bit tight but I think probably everyone did in that one.
"My wrist is fine. I've had so many injuries I can't even keep up with how many there were last year but I'm feeling fit. I started training in November but racing is totally different. You can practice all you want but as soon as you get on the startline..."
Before his dreadful run of injuries Jake was fourth in the world in MX2 in 2012 and seventh in 2013 and, although he will miss the flyaway GPs, he plans to race the rest of the MXGP season.
"I'm so down on confidence after the last two years that I need to almost take a step backwards and build myself up again.
"Not having graphics and a totally stock bike is kinda suiting the situation really - a couple of people have laughed about it but I couldn't give a toss, a sticker ain't going to make me go quicker.
"If my bike had been any quicker I'd probably have come off the back of it because it's so rough and I had arm-pump.
"The main focus is top three in the British championship, get as many top 10s as I can in GPs and try and get back to where I was and better."
