With less than a week before the Misano test there wasn’t a lot of time to do to much but I managed to fit in a couple of mountain bike rides one was an absolute beauty. I decided to ride up one of the many mountains near where I live; most of the ride is spent going up. After about three hours of climbing the trail disappeared and I found myself standing in about a metre of snow but after coming all that way I wasn’t going to turn around so continued on. I soon found out that it is better to push than try and ride through the snow so I ended up pushing for about 5 km to this restaurant where at least I could have some sustenance. Only problem was it was shut due to the snow so I rode another two hours home hungry and cold!
The test at Misano saw us trying another new engine this time it was a slightly lighter crank. I back to backed the standard engine with the one with the lighter crank and this time it was a little bit better not so much power wise but the bike was a little easier to flick from side to side. I managed to do times which were much quicker than the year before but had to sit out the final session in the afternoon when everyone started using the qualifiers. The tyres Pirelli provided for the test gave a lot of grip which suited the bikes with lots of grunt, I hope when we go there for the race it gets hot and slippery!
The Valencia race was satisfying in some ways but frustrating in others. To qualify on the front row was awesome. All the guys put in a great effort and really understand what to change when I ask for certain feeling from the FP1.We all slept well Saturday night knowing we had only the races to go. I knew that the races would be hard as I was taking a 900 to a 1000cc drag race off the start.
