Knockhill round 4 2014!!

Well didn't round 4 start well, Knockhill it's fair to say is a fair old way from from Kent but fortunately for me my team boss Birdy booked me a private plane to fly me up from my local airfield, that definitely made the trip a bit easier lol!!

I have to say I was really looking forward to racing north of the border again, last year the track was real good for us with a double win and whilst you can never take anything for granted I was certainly hoping for more of the same this weekend.

The strange thing was that whilst I got straight up to speed and was lapping pretty flipping fast immediately I couldn't seem to get comfortable on the bike, I seemed to be struggling a bit with feeling for the front tyre, I wasn't panicking as we as I said were fast and ended the session 1st or 2nd so I figured we'd look over the data and get things sorted for free practice 2 later that afternoon..

Little did I know this feeling issue I was having was somewhat more terminal than I'd anticipated, we tried some things to fix it and ran in to various other problems but at the same time we were under my lap record pace and lapping so consistently it wasn't even funny, things were, how should I say, looking very well on the outside but feeling not very good at all on the inside..

After a night to pore through all the data we'd gathered throughout the first days practice we went into free practice three hopeful of a cure for my issues however, and trust me this is going to start sounding like a broken record, whilst we fixed some parts we made others worse, for some unknown reason we just couldn't find a setting that would let me push the bike, sure I was giving 100% but it was 100% as hard as the bike wanted to go which I frustratingly felt was only about 80 odd % as hard as I felt I could go if we got things sorted..

Going into qualifying we found ourselves still chasing a set up that would give me the confidence to push as hard as i knew i could, we’d be thinking we’d sussed it then after a couple of laps realise actually we hadn’t, it was bizarre to say the least as like i mentioned before we were going fast, just not happy doing so!!

For the final qualifying i was hopeful of an all out attack, i knew what lap time i thought i’d need to do in order to fight for the front row and to be honest a big part of me was surprised i hadn’t already achieved it but regardless with the feeling i had i knew i’d need to dig deep, as we headed out for the final session mother nature had a bit of a sense of humour failure and decided now would be a good time to throw a bit of rain our way, i pushed on as much as i dare and came round to see a lap time WELL off where i knew i’d need to be, i never actually checked my position but i couldn’t help but think there’s only 10 of us out here, do i need to be firing it at the scenery for the sake of a row or two… after another semi steady lap to try to establish what was going on the rain stopped and it was time to dig, i pushed hard and did a few decent laps but my team mate followed me and done a time to go faster but fortunately i kept pushing and got a better time to end the session front row in P3, that’s absolutely fine by me i thought to myself riding back in to the collecting area!!!!

After going through all the data from qualifying and explaining what i was looking for the boys and i spent quite a while going through the data searching for an answer, the problem was that all the changes we were making were not big at all but were having such big effects on the way the bike was working… It’s definitely a little window that my baby works in that’s for sure!!!

Morning warm up was pretty cool temperature wise, we tried the bike with a different setting again then during the session i came in to try to modify it further, all things considered my rhythm was real strong despite the fact we used old tyres so while things weren't perfect we went with the settings fro race 1.

Knowing how many years i’ve been racing now i can’t believe i made such a rookie mistake during the start of race one, talking to myself waiting for the lights i was like “come on Shakester, we need this start” but looking up i could’ve sworn the was a problem with the lights, they were taking ages to come on, i panicked a little and looked at the starter Anabelle then noticed a set of lights on her hut just over Josh’s shoulder, as i clocked the lights they went out and i totally blew the start then got a bit ruffed up in the first few corners dropping me down to 5th or 6th, i was so angry with myself as i knew i’d need to be right at the sharp end to have a chance to fight, it took me quite a few laps to get through to 2nd and once i did i pushed hard to try to bridge the gap that Kiyo had already built at the front but all i could do was match him but he was 2 seconds up the track and the harder i tried the more problems i was having with the front of the bike, so many times i felt like i was going down but stayed on, eventually i took a 2nd which is far from a bad result but i was annoyed with myself for letting the win go away, one consolidation was that i had the fastest lap in race 2 so i’d start from Pole position for race 2…

We once again sat and had a long chat after the race about how to make the bike better as i knew there was no point in going with what we had again, the boys came up with a plan and before we knew it we were lining up for race 2, i wouldn’t be making a mistake this time off the start, that’s for sure lol!!!!

As the lights went out i got a great start and lead from the word go, let me tell you 30 laps around any track is almost enough to make you dizzy but when it’s 30 laps around a track as technically demanding as Knockhill it’s even worse.. the place just grinds you down as there’s literally not a seconds rest around there, nonetheless i kept my head down and pushed as hard as i could the whole race and despite a pass from Kiyo whom i managed to re pass a lap or so later it was 30 long laps leading but the right result at the end, i.e. a win so i was chuffed to bits with that, i think we learnt a lot as a team that weekend, we struggled a lot more than our results showed so to come away with a 2nd and a win was unreal, i was that happy i even brought Michael Rutter and Stuart Higgs a beer in the airport that evening lol!!!

Anyway, now it was onwards and upwards, well downwards depending on how you look at it to my home track, brands hatch, i can’t wait!!!

Snetterton round 3 2014

So then here we are back racing again, finally!!!, crikey it seems like a bloody long time ago since Oulton park doesn’t it??, so then, bringing you up to speed, as much as i would have rather carried on racing after the great start to this season i’ve actually really enjoyed the time off, we went over to Czech Republic for a week and also had a couple of weeks over in Spain where i managed to get plenty of cycling in so now we’re back, arrived here at Snetterton and feeling fresh, fit and raring to go!!!!

The weather it has to be said was absolutely perfect for the first free practice session, lovely and warm and not a lot of wind, we had a tiny problem with the bike initially but after just one flying lap i went P1 before pulling straight in to resolve the issue, as the session went on we got faster and faster and at one point i had a clear 1 second advantage, we tried a couple of things with the bike towards the end of the session but they never really worked so we just used the 1 set of tyres but still finished nearly 4 10ths up on the rest so it was a good start!!!   

For the afternoon session we had a bit of a plan to work through, there was the other rear tyre option that we had to get some laps on as well as a few little chassis changes that we wanted to test too, i got straight out and had a bit of traffic and a few guys looking for sneaky tows which meant i actually did 3 or 4 laps before getting going but still when i finally got some clear track i managed a pretty decent lap time, i stuck at it and reeled off a number of laps to check the rear tyre but it became apparent that we still needed to work on our corner entry as with the rear i was testing the feeling was exactly the same as the other, after maybe 10 laps or so i came in to try to find a cure for my problems, at this point i was just under 1 second clear of the rest of the pack, i knew time was counting down and that soon pretty much all the others would be fitting new tyres and going for lap times but it was really important for me to test the changes we’d made with the same tyres so that we didn’t get a false indication, the good news was though that when i went back out the guys had certainly made a good step with the bike, it wasn’t completely fixed but it was a good chunk better and i really enjoyed riding the bike for the first time all weekend, in fact the changes were that good that with over race distance on the tyres i went just 0.1 second a lap slower than my best from the session so hopefully that’d bode well for the races on sunday!!!!

Saturday morning we had one more free practice session which again went well, we were trying to be sure that whatever the conditions track temperature wise we had a bike that we knew we had a good rhythm on, it’s funny in a way because we always get two different types of rear tyre an SC0 and an SC1, 0 being the softer of the two, basically the 1 works well when the track’s cooler and works well up to  a certain track temperature then there’s a cross over point where the 1’s getting to it’s upper limit and the 0 to it’s lower limit then obviously the warmer the track gets generally the better the 0 works but that said the characteristics of the two tyres are different so the way you set the bike for them can differ too!!

Going into qualifying, whilst i was confident of a good lap time i wasn’t sure what the pace would be, i started Qualifying practice 1 on the 1 rear tyre and set a lap time more than good enough to go through to QP2, then in QP2 i used a 0 rear to see the difference, again, i went through to QP3 and with a new pair of tyres i went for it and pulled off a pretty decent lap to go Pole position, to be honest and you may think i’m lying i never care for Pole position’s, what’s the point? races are over 16-30 odd laps depending on the circuit so what’s the point in only being fast for 1 lap lol!!! When my lap time popped up on my dash i was absolutely chuffed to bits and to be honest if that time had of only got me 2nd or 3rd i’d be happy with it, the fact it put me half a second clear of the rest, well, that was just a nice little bonus!!!!!

For morning warm up we had some new brake disc and pads to bed in and after a couple of steady laps to start off with i got going pretty good on a pair of used tyres, we knew we had decent race pace so it was now pretty much just a case of sitting back and waiting to see what the track temperature would do and choose a rear tyre accordingly.

So with track temperature kinda falling right in the middle of the crossover point i spoke about earlier but the weather not looking too much like the sun was about to beat down on us in the imminent future we decided to go with the harder of the two rear ryes, as the lights went out i got a great start and lead immediately but very shortly after a course car came out due to a couple off accidents, I tried as hard as it's possible to keep some heat in the tyres as I knew when the car went in I had to try to make an escape and try to catch the boys napping, I got a good run when the car went in and pushed on a bit initially for a few laps which got me a bit of a gap but then in the interest of not rooting my rear tyre I backed it right off and tried really hard not to use any tyre at all, the only trouble was that my pace dropped just a couple of tenths or so too much in doing so and soon the boys were back on me, I figured at this point there was no point in panicking and trying to up my pace as potentially I'd risk having nothing left for the last couple of laps so I kept things pretty chilled until a couple of laps or so from the end when I got my head down hard again and got a small gap to take the win, I was made up with it even though I figured race two would be harder this was at least one out of the way, it also gave me the perfect chance to dedicate it to two great guys that we lost recently, Karl Harris and Simon Andrews, that one was for you boys!!

After a few small changes it seemed like no time at all before we were lining up on the grid again, my crew chief said to me "look, you've got this, you know the pace you can do, keep it under or around that and I reckon you'll build a buffer and be able to manage it"... Hmmm I thought, ok, let's give it a go!!

As the lights went out I got another decent start, slotted in and settled down, go to the front then started to push to my pace, once again my pace built me a small buffer but things were pretty tight at the front, I once again used my secret weapon which was the big TV monitor on the exit of the final turn to suss out how close the guys were to me and how hard to push accordingly and it seemed to be working a treat, my plan was to once again have a big dig for the final four or five laps to try to break the bunch and with about 3 to go it started to build then the next lap it was at like 3 seconds or something, blimey I thought, I didn't think I was going that fast!! Anyway the final couple of laps past and I crossed the line to take win number two, I was absolutely chuffed to bits to do the double, it was exactly what we needed and a great job by the whole team to get us there..

We knew that it was or is should I say way too early to be counting our chickens and any questions right now about Showdowns or championships seems miles and miles away but we were definitely on the right track, for now I just want to concentrate as hard as possible on racking up podium credits, ask me my aim at any race meeting and it'll be the same, obvious as it may sound it's to win but more importantly it's to rack up as many podium credits as possible because let's face it, it doesn't matter should we make it through to the showdown if we go there with a 200 point lead in the championship it means nothing if I have a 10 point podium credit lead as that's all we'll carry through, with that in mind it's head down bum up and maximum effort to keep them credits coming, let's hope we can rack up a good few more when we go north of the border in a couple of weekends time!!!!

Take it easy till then guys and girls, Shakey #67

Oulton park round 2 2014!!

So then, following on from my well overdue first round Blog last week i decided it’s high time i got cracking with this one to bring you fully up to speed with all the going’s on from Oulton park. Being a bank holiday round i was getting a bit jittery on the friday waiting to travel up, i’d gone up to Oulton and back the previous week and had a 7 hour journey up and a pretty savage trip back too so i wasn’t looking forward to another long day in the car, typically me i’d arranged all sorts of bits and pieces that i’d either not got round to or simply forgot about so my mate Wag and i ended up leaving about 3 hours behind schedule, in fact at the time we finally left i was meant to be meeting my friend and sponsor in Milton Keynes to collect my new bicycle!!!

i think actually a quick shout has to go to Sean from Mavic for sorting said new bike for me, as you probably know i’m a bit of a fan of cycling when it comes to my training and Sean and Mavic sorted me out a properly amazing deal on a new Pinarello Dogma, the same bike Sir Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome won the Tour dr France on, i wish it could make me pedal like those boys but unfortunately it won’t, that said i’ll now look flipping cool even if i’m dolloping along getting overtaken by milk floats lol!!!!

Anyway, finally we arrived at Toddington services to meet Sean and collect the bike and after all the excitement of seeing it and having a quick blast around the service area car park it was back on the road again for Wag and i.

Eventually, unfortunately a good few hours later we finally arrived at Oulton park!!

I have to say that all the way there i was thinking about how tough the weekend was going to be, sure we’d been fast in all testing etc but and we won the first two races of the season but we were heading deep into yamaha land, that bike is so so strong there and i knew i was going to be right up against it trying to beat Josh there, i also knew Josh was super pumped and very hopeful of results similar if not better than previous riders, this was going to be far from a walk in the “Park” if you pardon the pun!!!!!

Having tested at the track as i mentioned earlier we were already semi up to speed on the saturday morning free practice session, we had a few ideas after looking at the data of the direction we’d need to work in and made a few appropriate changes throughout the session.

To be fair my bike was working really really well, throughout practice sessions my crew chief Johnny and Chris my K Tech suspension man chipped away and chipped away and the bike just got better and better, free practice three came to an end with me having a run out on a new rear tyre and going 0.6 clear of the entire field and managing my first 1.34 second lap, i was pretty chuffed with that considering it wasn’t a perfect lap and i got a bit of traffic too, let’s see what qualifying brings then…

We started Q1 with a new front and a new rear tyre and the plan was to use the new set in Q1 and Q2 then go new front new rear for the final session, with that in mind i did an out lap and one flyer to initially go P1, the time wasn’t that fast but i knew it’d be more than enough to get through to Q2 so i sat out the rest of the session.

Q2 i went out on the same tyres as i said before and managed to get back into the 34’s again, a 34.9, Josh had done a 34.9 in Q 1 then a 34.8 in Q2 so i knew it was going to be tight in Q3, i dug in and put in a pretty good lap, it wasn’t perfect but pretty good and when i saw 1.34.5 come up on my dash i was chuffed to bits, i actually thought if you go faster than that you can have the bloody pole lol!!! As it turned out i’d done enough to take Pole by .3 of a second so my first royal London watch was on route ;-)

We had a plan for morning warm up regarding race tyres, i felt we’d definitely done our homework on the harder (safer) option but there was a possibility we could make the softer tyre work for the race, especially if the temperature got up a bit more, our plan however was scuppered by overnight rain and far cooler track temp so unless the temperature really picked up we knew exactly what our tyre choice was going to be..

Race 1 then, as i’ve said, i wasn’t really expecting to be starting from Pole but was happy to nonetheless, i got a decent ish start and lead initially but pretty much straight away the course car came out, obviously being at the front you never know the reason until you come back around to where the incident happened and i have to say on that first pass at the top of cascades we went through what vaguely resembled a motocross track and i looked at Josh as if to say this race needs stopping, we peel in to the top of cascades touching the rev limiter in 4th gear so probably approaching 130-140mph and i didn’t really want to be the first guy to find out if they’d cleaned all the mud and dust etc sufficiently!!!

fortunately however atet another couple of laps behind the course car the track was looking pretty good, as the course car pulled off i got on the gas and away we went, i was pretty cautious the first few times across the top of where the mud had been but nevertheless started to build up a bit of a lead, at one point the lead got up to 1.5 seconds and with about 4 or 5 laps to go i concentrated on staying consistent, the gap started coming down and i thought hmm, i know who that’ll be but rather than panicking and trying to pull away again i stayed calm and maintained my rhythm, for the last few turns i rode a little bit more defensively then exiting the final turn i drove hard to the finish line to hold off Josh to take the first race of the day.

The only thing that was going to affect us for race two was going to be track temperature but with that not changing dramatically we just made a little change to the rear of the bike and were good to go for race two, Josh had lapped slightly faster than me in the first race so for this one i would start from second but i was cool with that so it was a case of sit and wait for the lights to go out and… go go go!! 

Once again i got a decent ish start, and slotted straight in to 3rd, i made a move on James Ellison into the fast left hander Island bend as Josh was in the lead and i didn’t want him sneaking away, that move worked and a lap or two later i tried the exact same move on Josh, he never gave way though and held his line but ran slightly wide so i passed him into Shell oils hairpin, on the way i the i heard a horrible scraping noise and honestly thought i’d clipped him or he’d just caught my bike on the way in and he’d gone down, it was weird because i never for some reason got fully on it on the exit of the turn and i was trying out of the corner of my eye to see if there were yellow flags across the track on the entry to Shell showing a rider down, then bugger me as i peeled into the Fulstons chicane Josh came back past me and caught me well off guard, there i was thinking oh no, i’m sure my move was clean, it wasn’t my fault blah blah blah and the next thing i knew he was overtaking me!!!

To cut a long story short i followed him from there on in for the whole race, there were plenty of places i was faster but a particular section that he was able to pull a bit on me, i sat there for the last few laps planning my attack, i knew i’d have to pass him real early in the lap or he'd be in with a good shout of passing me back but i just couldn’t get enough of a run early enough in the lap to make a pass, on the last lap i had a proper go, Josh was under pressure and making a few little mistakes but trying hard to capitalise i made a mistake myself, i set myself up for a big run to the line as Josh had gone in tight but the Yamaha had the legs off that turn and Josh pipped me by exactly the same amount as i’d beaten him in the first race, 1 10th of a second.

Now i have to admit i’m never happy to finish second but i’ve taken a great deal of positivity from the Oulton park weekend, my bike was great, my Pole time was real fast, i won the first race, our times in race two were super fast and consistent and finally we ran Yamaha who’ve dominated there recently so so close and almost had another double, for me that was a massive weekend, believe it or not i’m actually gutted we’ve got such a big break now as i’m really enjoying the season so far!! 

That said we have a couple of nice breaks planned now, we’re off to Czech republic for a week to see the in laws which should be great, usually Petra and i nip off to Prague for a day or so while the grandparents have the kids so i’m really looking forwards to that, i’m also hoping to get a load of training done to ensure we come back for Snetterton in tip top condition, i can’t wait to get going again, hopefully see some of you at Snetterton, take it easy, Shakey #67  

I know, I know, I know... Pre season and Brands hatch round 1!!

Ok hands up I've gone and got myself in a bit of a pickle here, it's been that long since I've done a Blog that I actually don't know where to start and not only that 2 rounds in to the new season and I've almost forgotten Brands already, I'm gonna do my best he recollect what's been going on in my world over the past few months so hang tight, here we go!!!

I guess that going over now what happened in testing over in Spain seems pretty pointless, as you may or may not recall i tested way back in the end of november last year and got to use the new 17 inch wheels, at a track as tight and twisty as Cartagena that .5 of an inch difference was massive and i remember way back then thinking these wheels really suit my bike and looking forwards to getting back out in the new year, now, fast forward a few months, a good few gym sessions with the personal trainer i’ve entrusted to get me in the best possible shape for this season, fast forwards even more to a whole load of cycling as well as the personal training and end up at a trip to Italy to see my clothing supplier Alpinestars, why i hear you ask, well, after spending the whole winter on a special diet and training full gas i’d dropped a bit of weight, when i say a bit i dropped approximately 4-5 kilos!!!!, What’s that got to do with Alpinestars, well, i last went over to Italy in 2005, my second season in Moto GP so i figured it was high time i went for a remeasure and get this, i’m leaner and fitter now than i was 9 years ago and adjustments had to be made to my suit to make it smaller to fit me better as last years suit o me looked like a shell suit lol!!!!!

Onwards and upwards then and off to Almeria for the official BSB preseason tests, i really enjoy the circuit and was really looking forwards to getting going, we had John McGuiness come over with us to hang out which was cool, he’s such a funny guy and all three evenings were spent laughing our heads off at all the stories of the past, it was almost like the test was a massive team bonding exercise, not that we need to be any tighter because i have a great team anyway but it was work hard all day and relax hard all evening so we had a great time, not only that i went bloody fast, like really fast on the bike too and was consistently fast not just the odd lap here and there on brand new tyres!!! 

Straight after Almeria came the first UK test of the year up at Donington park, a semi damp first session meant i never bothered going out but once the track dried up we got some good work done and again we were fast, it was the first test up against all of our competitors and we managed to come out on top which was cool although it was consistency we were looking for not outright lap times so it was a win win situation!!!

Onwards then to the next test, a two day affair at Snetterton, again a test that was semi hampered by the weather, it was really cold so track temperature were really low and the wind on the first day was bad news, the second day though was far better and we managed to once again go real fast, i even managed to beat my own lap record held from the last year of full F.I.M Superbike spec back in 2011 with a 1.47.9, i was pretty chuffed with that i tell you!!!!

Right then, now we’re making progress so let’s move onwards again to round 1!!

Brands hatch, what can i say that i haven’t said before about the place, i love the long circuit but i’m not a fan at all of the short circuit, to me any track we can get around in 45 seconds isn’t big enough, the fact we have 2 30 lap races there, well, that say it all, back markers are always a trauma but hey, it’s still Brands hatch, and ultimately when we’re on the GP circuit it’s one of the coolest tracks on earth, well, to me anyway lol!!!

Practice in the dry had been going well, to be honest with the lap being so short it only takes a few laps before you're up to speed, that combined with the fact that the first round was a four day affair meant that by the time we got to qualifying most of us were going dizzy, well, that’s what you must’ve thought after the absolute crash fest that qualifying became, i know and understand that the organisers have to have a qualifying session and of course there was all kinds of eruptions and press releases after but i still FIRMLY stand my ground that 13 of the top 15 qualifying riders didn’t crash just because we were al trying hard, that is absolute nonsense and after the event is something that Johnathon Palmer has invited me up to the circuit to help to try to resolve, there’s something about the Indy section of the track that makes it almost impossible to stay on your bike, i crashed twice for absolutely no reason, Josh Brookes 3 times and like i said 13 of the top 15 qualifiers all crashed in the same session, that’s got to say something, right???…

Race day then, we knew with the settings that we had for the dry that we would be competitive, myself and Josh seemed to be the two most consistent guys in the dry throughout practice so with Josh starting from Pole and me down in 13th on the 5th row surely an uphill battle would ensue.

I got a decent enough start but i was very keen not to rush and make a mistake trying to make up places, i took no big risks picking my way through the field then going up into Druids i saw Josh had gone down, shortly after i was up into 2nd with Stalker about 2 seconds clear, once through all the traffic i found a real nice rhythm and started reeling Stalker in, i still had about 20 laps to go so figured driving myself mad to catch him quick may have used too much tyres yet the pace i was going i was trying to go easy on them, eventually i got right on Stalkers back wheel and pretty much instantly the red flags came out, at that point i wasn’t sure if it was two thirds race distance so i didn’t know if it was a result or not..

After the race we stopped it was announced there’d be a re start over 12 or 16 laps, i can’t remember which, i’d be starting P2 rather than on the 5th row so it was gonna make life a lot easier, however knowing Stalker and James Ellison would probably run the softer tyre i knew the pace might be stronger so i had to get my head down, i got a good start, got myself into the lead then chipped away to eventually win the 1st race of the year by just under 2 seconds!!

Race 2 came around pretty quick, 30 hard laps were in front of us and with Josh starting 10th and me up the front i knew i’d need to try to get going asap, again i got a decent enough start, eventually i took the lead then reeled of 29 laps and managed to take the double at round one, for sure Josh was closing me down but like i said we held it together to take the double so i was absolutely delighted, the extra bonus was it was my team boss Paul Bird’s birthday on the friday before so it made a nice birthday present for him lol!!!! So then after the perfect start to the season it was now onwards and upwards yet again, this time to Yamaha’s stomping ground, Oulton park… 

Happy Christmas!!!!

Well guys and girls, time for a super quick check in with you all, really and truly it was simply to say that i’d like to wish you all a very happy Christmas, i hope you had a great day, got all the presents you wanted, i know i did!!!! No peace for the wicked this end though, straight back into training tomorrow, got to do something to work off the Christmas dinner Petra cooked us today, i tell you something if Carling did Christmas dinners lol…

Anyway, as i said, hope you all had a great day and lets look forward to a great 2014, talk to you all soon, enjoy the rest of your breaks, Shakey #67 

Signed, sealed, now to deliver!!!!

I'm so so happy to be typing this Blog, I'm actually starting it sat on a plane on route to the Czech Republic as this is about the first chance I've had to sit down for five minutes as I've had a bit of a hectic few days lately but more about that in a minute!!

Things work wise have been all a bit up in the air lately, I've known what I wanted to do for a long long time and fortunately for me I'm in a very fortunate position where my boss Paul Bird simply said I want you to stay riding for me but we'll work out the details once the MotoGP side of things is boxed off, you may remember a while back I said that I might have some news straight after Valencia, well, that was what it was all about, as it turns out it's taken this long for the PBM and I'm guessing Aprilia job to sort itself out but as I said I knew all along Paul had my back so it was all cool as far as I was concerned, there were the usual calls from other teams wanting me for BSB but my first priority and loyalty was to Paul and PBM so those jobs steadily got taken by others.

We'd known for a while that as a team we needed to get out to Spain to test before Christmas, in fact it was something that the team were fairly adamant about, for 2014 BSB is switching to 17 inch wheels to follow WSB and we knew that the wheels had quite an effect of the bikes handling so it was important to get out to try them and get a feel for what they did to my bike.

It's funny you know having a couple of months or whatever it's been since the last race at Brands off how initially you feel a tiny bit rusty, Cartagena isn't the type of track that you get a chance to ease yourself into either, you get about a 4 or 5 second rest up the start finish straight but the rest of the lap is either on the side of the tyre or changing direction so it's pretty physical and relentless, it'd be a great track on a 600 or something but a super bike takes a bit of wrestling around there!!! We spent a few laps getting comfortable around the track again and getting up to speed again which to be honest happened pretty damn quick then after a few exits we fired in the new 17 inch wheels and got to work on getting the bike working good with them, in some respects they were real good but in others I was surprised how similar they were to the outgoing 16.5's, I'm not going to say too much about the differences but I think I can safely say that lap records should be getting broken again next season, especially if my time by the end of the test compared to my time there after 3 days of riding earlier in the year is anything to go by and when I tell you that we lost about 45 minutes of running on the final day due to a technical problem thus not giving me the chance to go for a proper all out lap time I think things will be real good!!

After the test I only got a day or so at home before packing our bags ready to head to Czech Republic to go to see the in laws, this was supposed to be a real relaxing trip with Petra and I even planning a sneaky day and night together in Prague as we enjoyed it there so much last year, however the minute we got to the in laws Petra's sisters boyfriend said casually oh, I've entered a running race on Saturday, it's 10km's and should be pretty good, knowing I hadn't run since early March I said can anyone enter, secretly hoping he'd say no it's a club thing but he said yes for sure so before we'd even got settled in we'd been entered....

Yesterday, we woke up, kept hearing it'll be fine blah blah blah, got in the car with him and a friend, drove to the race and about 2 km from the entrance we started dropping down a big hill, unbeknown to us this was part of the course, as we approached it seemed the closer we got to the parking and starting area the steeper this hill was getting, knowing I'd not run in such a long time I was like Martin, is this some sort of joke, he was like, actually no, I was expecting it to be quite like this, anyway, to cut a long story short, we started went up and up and up, levelled off, dropped down a slight slope then I looked up in front of me and saw the leaders running up a massive flight of steps up into a big church that stood perched on top of a hill, I thought you're shitting me, first run back and this is happening, what made it worse was the fact that I knew we had to do 2 laps, it was hard enough getting up it first time round, god knows what lap 2 was going to be like!!!!

Eventually the 2nd lap passed and heading down towards the finish line I passed a group I'd been chasing for a fair while, not that it meant anything but I was chuffed, then with about 100 odd meters to go I started hearing big thudding footsteps behind me, I thought no, don't be thinking about passing me back, this one guy came past me and as we turned the last turn with about 50 meters to go we both got faster and faster, I gave it absolutely everything and literally just pipped him to the line, I thought you cheeky b word, fancy trying to pip me that close to the finish, mind you I did practically throw up crossing the line, I can honestly say hand on heart I tried lol!!!

I waited for a bit then saw Petra coming towards e end of her race, she did the 10km course too and ended up having a sprint finish with some guy who she too pipped, she actually finished 3rd in her class so I was well proud of her because when I say that was a tough race I really mean it!!

Today we're off to Prague, Petra and i stayed there for 3 days last year and loved it so we're going again, lunchtime we have a coach, we'll get to Prague around 3 then I've booked us a real nice hotel right in the middle of the city near Wenceslas square tonight then a full day of kicking back tomorrow, I'm really looking forward to it!!!

Right I'm gonna check out now, talk to you guys soon, take it easy, Shakey #67

 "

Quick catch up!!!

Thought I'd take this opportunity to fire you guys a quick Blog, admittedly there's not a great deal to report right now but I guess a quick catch up anyway won't do any harm!!

Since the season finale back at brands things have been fairly quiet in my little world! we had a trip to Spain for half term which was supposed to be a week off just chilling but ended up turning into a cycling mission, it was nice though in the time that I wasn't on the push bike to really just relax, enjoy my family and enjoy life in general, the fact that the last day in October was 28 degrees and we spent a couple of hours catching rays by the pool helped too lol!!!

I've been hoping to make an announcement for a bit now regarding my plans for 2014, there was a chance I'd be able to do so straight after the final MOTO GP round at Valencia but there's been a few delays, it's not a drama though, I'm fairly certain that everything needed is in place and it's only a matter of time before I can say.

Myself and a good mate of mine brought ourselves some enduro bikes recently and managed to get out on them at a place called Enduroland the other weekend, it's funny you know, we both brought the trickest enduro bikes out there, myself a 300 2 stroke and Wag a 450 4 stroke, both 6 day limited edition ones so they look properly cool, I spent 20 odd minutes running mine in on the road the night before, then we rocked up Sunday morning, unloaded these pristine brand new bikes, rode for about an hour and a half over the course of about 3 hours then loaded back into the van two bikes that looked absolutely nothing like they did when we arrived!! I had such a fun day, it was my first time back on an off road bike in about 2 years and for pretty much the whole week after I was a bit stiff and sore, I'm not sure what hurt the most though, my body form all the silly little crashes I had or my stomach from all the giggling and laughing I was doing riding watching my pals slipping, sliding and falling about all over the place, it truly was a great day and I'm pleased I brought the bike, I even went to the trouble of jet washing it afterwards to see if it was still my bike under all the mud and crap lol, it's at my local dealer now though getting a full fettle up so it should be brand new by the time I collect it from there, I can't wait to get back out on it!!

Talking of the week after that day it was an interesting one for me, I went to see two different personal trainers as I'm right on the case for 2014, I know that if I just do what I normally do I'll start the season in good shape but I want to start next year in the best shape ever so it was important to enlist some help!!, Monday morning after the enduro riding I went over to Tunbridge wells for a bit of a fitness test with one of the guys, feeling like I'd been run over by a truck I guess the results were never going to be outstanding but I was pretty happy in all fairness with the way I performed, knowing myself that I've done next to nothing since Assen because of crashes etc I guess this was the worst I was ever likely to be some improvements should come fairly quickly!!

At the end of the week I went up to Kensington to see an other guy and did a work out with him too and that's the route I'm going to follow from here on in so hopefully well definitely we'll be seeing some big gains from the word go, funnily enough I'm sat on the train to Victoria now typing this on route to another torture session lol!!!!

Another pretty cool thing that's happened recently was getting to meet HRH Prince William up at the NEC show, it ended up being a bit of a mission to get it sorted with the organisers of the show claiming they couldn't help at all but then somehow managing to get Bradley Smith an arranged meeting but hey, what goes around and all that, fortunately for me the guys at Ducati UK are good people and the boss there managed to swing it for me, made the introduction and away we went, the Prince I can tell you is a very cool guy, we chatted a bit about Ducati's, riding in general and touched on racing then he wondered off for his look around the stand so that was an absolute honour and I'd like to say a big thanks to Tim Macabee from Ducati for sorting it for me!!

Next week we're off to the Czech Repuplic for just under a week which will be really nice, I love going there because it's so relaxing for me, don't get me wrong I'll be doing a bit of running to keep on top of things but 90% of the time it's kick back and relax! I'm hoping that Petra and I can disappear up to Prague for a day and a night too, I love at city and really enjoyed the three days we had there last year.

Whilst we're over there our dog's off to boot camp, not literally, I took her the other day over to a guy in Tunbridge wells who does residential training for dogs, she's having a two week stay there and basically should come back a far more balanced, calm and obedient dog, at least that's the theory lol, not only that it works well time wise with us going away.

Right, not much further to go now so I'm going to sign off, I'll be catching up with you guys as soon as I can make an announcement which hopefully will be soon, take care guys and girls, Shakey #67