Jet Lagged!
By TMX Archives on 13th Feb 06
It's been just three days since I got back from the States, it's one in the morning and I can't sleep. It's been just three days since I got back from the States, it's one in the morning and I can't sleep. Yes, you've guessed it - jet lag! Although it's so early in the morning I thought now would be a good time to write my column seeing as my memory is still fresh.Jodie and I arrived at Los Angeles LAX airport around six in the evening after a night flight from Gatwick. We were both feeling tired and the airport was busy and as we walked through passport control Jodie noticed Geri Halliwell - Ginger Spice!After collecting all our bags we jumped on a shuttle bus that took us to our rent-a-wreck place. I had a small van I'd booked waiting for me there, well I thought I had a van but the guy there said 'sorry, we have no vans'. I argued with him for 20 minutes but ended up leaving with a pick-up truck.It was only a 45-minute drive to where we stayed. We were so tired we went straight to sleep and I ended up waking at two in the morning and sat staring at the walls for a few hours before getting up and heading down to the gym. The gym was part of the complex but when I got down there it was closed - it didn't open until six and it was only a quarter to five. The door wasn't locked so I let myself in, turned on the lights, TV and cracked on with a workout.The next day I went back to the car rental place and swapped my pick-up for a van. Now I had a van I could make the two-minute drive from our hotel to Kawasaki HQ to pick up a bike. The guys there couldn't have helped me anymore than they did and they looked after me real well.The weather was really nice and all the tracks were in awesome condition. At most of the riding spots we would always bump into some other riders from England or Europe. De Reuver and Tortelli turned up at most tracks as did Tommy Searle, David Willet and schoolboy racer Sam Davis.I was able to go and watch both the Anaheim I and II supercross races. The racing was awesome and it was nice to see Kawasaki winning. I didn't manage to have a chat with Ben Townley but I did pop over to see ex GP racer Andrew McFarlane. He was enjoying his time out there but he'd crashed mid-week breaking his toes so he was on crutches.It was my birthday while I was out there so a group of us got together for a bite to eat. Hot-tub, Big Dave, French Fred, TC's new technician, Tim, his wife Clare and son Zac as well as Iggy and Sam Davis. Cheers guys for making it a good night!We didn't have too much spare time to go sight seeing but we managed to get down to the beach on a couple of my days off. Even though the weather was great we never made it into the sea so I just relaxed on the beach drinking Starbucks coffee and watching the surfers.I was riding most days which is good for this time of year. I also took my road bicycle with me so I was able to get some good cycling done as well. Overall I had a good time out there on the bike and training before heading back for pre-season testing.It's nice to be back home to see our dogs and rabbit. The only thing is that the weather here is freezing. I'm off to Holland next week to do some riding before my first race on February 12 at Mantova in Italy. It's a bit early I know but it will be a good warm-up and will give me a chance to gauge myself against the other riders.I'm looking forward to it all starting up again and I'm especially looking forwards to the Hawkstone International and racing in the British championship. It will be nice to see all my fans again.Speaking of fans, I bumped into a few British ones at the Anaheim supercross races who came and asked for my autograph. They were really nice people and I ended up chatting with them for about 10 minutes.Well I'm feeling a bit tired so I'm gonna try and get some sleep to help me over the jet lag! Good luck and see you soon...Words by Stephen Sword Photo by Ray Chuss