TYCO BMW BRITISH SUPERBIKES
Summer break as a kid was the best thing ever. Summer break from racing sucks though, because I love riding my bike and the thought of not getting to race for all that time makes me very sad indeed. This year however, it’s helped me out just a little as I head into the BSB holidays injured… Round 3 was Oulton Park and my home round, so I had loads of family and friends set to come along and pretty much all my personal sponsors too. I’d done the BSB media event, was on the front cover of the programme and even did a TV thing for local ITV. The sun was out and life was good until I lost the front just eight minutes into free practice 2 and ended up doing my very best impression of a bouncing bomb. When I break bones I tend to get a nauseous sensation – and there it was. I had no pain but I knew what I had done, and as the break itself isn’t a bad one (it’s just a couple of bones in the back of my hand, it could’ve been much worse!).
I was pretty confident I could line up on the grid, but after being totally unable to squeeze any toothpaste out of the tube the following morning the reality set in. Sitting on the bike and attempting to hold the bar a few hours later was the icing on the cake and that was my weekend done, which is more frustrating than anything. The effort that goes in from all sides is immense and this is now the fourth year in a row that ‘something’ has happened that’s made my racing life a little more difficult than it needs to be.