Motocross Performance Magazine Canadian Motocross news leader
As all of you know, I have decided to come to compete in the last 5 MXGP rounds here in Italy. The first 3 are in Trentino and the final 2 are in Mantova. This is a dream come true for me! Growing up, I have always wanted to race the MXGP rounds. I mean who wouldn’t, these are the best dudes in the world in motocross. I am looking forward to learning from them and seeing if I can mix it with these guys.
The trip started for me by taking my flight from Toronto to Rome on Wednesday of last week, then from Rome to Bologna. Once I arrived in Bologna, I decided to save a trip for the members of the Honda114 team and take the train to Riva del Garda where I will be staying for the first three rounds. Some people might say, why the train? Well when I was here on vacation, I actually took the train a lot to get around. It is super easy, and you don’t have to drive on the roads here that aren’t the best. That and it is very common to take the train in Italy as they work really well.
Upon my arrival Thursday night in Riva del Garda, I took a little look around town and saw really how beautiful of a spot this is! Yep, you heard me, Thursday night! It was a couple of long travel days for me! The town is surrounded by mountains and sits right on the side of a famous lake here in Trentino. Immediately, I went looking around Friday morning at the amazing sights around here, bought some groceries, and got settled into my apartment. Then I saw a lot of people hiking, so I myself decided to head towards the mountain and find a trail! The scenery here is unreal, it’s a very beautiful spot!
The following day, I headed to the track where I finally met everyone from the team that I would be working with as well as many of the guys from factory HRC Team over here. Everyone was super cool and very nice; they were all asking me what they could do to help and if I needed anything. My mechanic and I gel well together, he is a French guy so we communicate in French, pretty handy for me! Then we got the bike, and everything through tech inspection and we were ready for race day. After the WMX race and the 125 race was over, as a team we went and walked the track together. My god, the scenery from the track is so cool with all the mountains surrounding it. Then we waited for our dinner to be served in the hospitality truck where we all ate as a team. It was super cool to be welcomed into their little family with open arms. The HRC team really goes over the top with the hospitality which is incredible to see. Following the amazing diner, I headed back to my apartment to get a good night’s sleep before race day!
Finally, it was race day! We got to the track pretty early in the morning, so I had time to warm up and get the final things all organized. Then I waited for the 250 practice to start. While they practiced, I went down to the testing area to feel the bike out and make sure everything was good to go. I also did a couple of practice starts on the grate to be ready to go for the motos. In practice and qualifying, I definitely struggled a bit with bike setup and my riding wasn’t the best. I needed to stiffen up my setup all around and I needed to soften the moose tube in the rear tire as I felt it was bouncing around quite a bit. I was also overriding the track a little bit. The track is really hard and slick so you have to be patient. Once I made these changes, I felt much more comfortable heading into the motos.
With qualifying not going well, I had a bad gate pick for both motos. But seeing as I’m not afraid to charge thru the pack I wasn’t too worried. That’s exactly what I ended up having to do in both motos. In the first moto, I was able to charge my way up to 13th by the end. I was happy with that ride. My first ride in MXGP and being able to run with the regular guys close to the top 10 was definitely cool. The second moto for me didn’t go as well. After making a couple of good moves to stay out of some pile-ups on the first lap, I was able to get myself inside the Top 15, However, on Lap 2 I got cleaned out by another rider. When I got up I knew it wasn’t going to be easy to charge through the pack from pretty far back as all these guys are fast. The best I could do by the end was work my way up to 21st place. I did learn some stuff and am going to be able to build on it for the next round. Thanks for reading and thanks for cheering me on from Canada.
