What an Awesome weekend we had up at Mount Tambourine, for this years Aussie titles. We didn’t get a chance to thank people at the presentation due to a few technical hiccups, so I thought I better get onto an article and post it before we fly out for Poland! Jess and I drove home to Perth, and I have had a week at work and then fly out with Lewis to Poland on Sunday (tomorrow). My legs have just got over the 4700kms of driving and they aren’t looking forward to 20 hours in sardine class in a plane!
First up I want to thank a few people, firstly to my wife Jessica! She has been an enormous help as always, and all this year in particular and I can’t thank her enough! Dad for being the best bloody minder I could ever hope for! He always puts in the same effort as me if not more! Thanks to Tim Alex and Lewis for all the riding we have had together as this has made me pick up my act! Thanks to all the West Aussies those who were in QLD, and those at home, for all their support through out the year in particular with helping us A graders running the Expert series in Perth. Thanks to Justin Gough for sorting us out with a place to practice. A huge thank you also to the Willcocks family, Danny and Mitch Green and Jamie O’Neil for helping us find potential minders for Tim after Paul potentially hurt his arm the weekend before the Trial! Finally thanks to all our sponsors, Beta, Bel-Ray, Diadora, Raptor Racing, TRP, Apico, Exciting, and Airoh.
Also my apologies to anyone I may have inadvertently ignored, didn’t catch up with, or didn’t hear, over the weekend. We have a lot to do and when I am focusing I can get a little intense. I also think we need a public holiday on the Monday of every Aussie titles so after we have done the important stuff of riding, we can all get rid of the full years worth of pent up, gas bagging, and dribbling of shit that we all want to do!
I really enjoyed the trial; it was a nice change of scenery to be in the creek bed all the way! What a shame we can’t ride there more often! I did miss not having any big steps but, there aren’t really any big steps in the creek! The guys did a great job setting the sections, I actually thought on lap one they may have been a little too easy but I think they were spot on! The last few years has seen some really great sections set for the titles, but I am a little sadistic!
We went into the trial trying to be as conservative as possible in the sections because we don’t get a lot of slippery stuff in Perth and I was feeling pretty sketchy, to be honest. Every section felt like I could go from a beautiful clean ride to a gumby looking 3 or 5 in a spilt second. I was worried I’d have a good ride but get let down with a few stupid 5’s. I was pretty happy with my ride, but in the end I felt I was a little too conservative which cost me a few points. After all these years I still say what if?? Congratulations to Jake what an awesome ride! To drop a lap of 4 points was just insane! He certainly deserved the win.
Well I am now packed and ready for Poland, I am a little worried as I only have 16kgs currently packed??? Something has to be missing – Oh that’s right the wife’s not coming! (hehehe I’ll pay for that one!) Lewis and I have been out riding for the last few days and we are both fit and ready. Myslenice is just south of Krakow on the map and I think Mount Tambourine is probably the best lead up we could have had to this trial. I have ridden 3 Euro Champ rounds and minded 1 world round there, and it is greasy! A creek bed lined with clay banks and lots of tree roots. Though the rock isn’t as nice as Mount Tambourine, it is quite ugly and awkward. So our boys and girls should do well, but we are up against some pretty tough competition. It’s a shame that Michelle has busted her knee, but I am sure that Brooke will do a great job in filling her boots. MA also has Erin Lagoudakis a public relations expert to help us get some exposure so we should get a bit better exposure for the team this year than in the past!
Hopefully we can report back with some great results!
Neil Price