I had been to the dolomite mountains in Italy before in 2001 so kind of knew what to expect. I remembered it being very scenic and beautifull and I also remembered the fickle weather from being in the mountains. Most of all i remembered green, grassy tests just like riding on the farm back in Scotland.
Once again I travelled out with Simon Wakely. This time though we went in my new Sprinter van. After the Brechfa i bought a van and kitted it out ready for the Italy trip. This didn't leave much time for practising but i kept up my running and gave my injured back a rest.
We arrived on tuesday night, spent all day wednesday walking tests then pretty much all day on Thursday making final preparations to the bike. I made a lot of changes to the suspension, assisted by Pete Bailey. Doll, as he is infamously known is good to have around as sometimes it is difficult to know what way to go with suspension and to have somebody there who knows what they are talking about helps to give confidence with decisions.
On friday we breazed through scrutineering after waiting 90minutes to sign on.
Saturday dawned warm and sunny with predictions of rain showers for later. The checks although not tight weren't slack either so we had to get a move on. I was riding with Jeff Goblet again. The first timed test was the extreme, a really twisty and rocky test. I just cruised round trying not to fall off like I had done in portugal. My time was steady but nothing special. Next we were on to the MX, a green grassy test on the side of a hill. Again I cruised around trying not to fall off. After that was the test I had been looking forward to, the Enduro test. Many riders had commented when walking the enduro test that it was the best test that they had ever seen. I was in agreement. It had everything, uphills, downhills, ruts, stones, roots, jumps, berms, flat corners, off cambers, the lot. Best of all for me it was really long. I decided to have a go on this test but frustratingly this backfired. I knew that I could go a lot faster as I had made a lot of mistakes including binning it twice. On the next lap I managed to stay on board and was rewarded with a good time of 11 minutes 14 secs however there was still mistakes a plenty. I never rode the test that well but my times were reasonably competitive when I stayed on.
At the end of the day after winning the final extreme test, I changed my tyre and the gearbox oil as the clutch was slipping a little. When we got the results I was 9th. Not brilliant but I knew there was scope for improvement for Sunday. I slept well and thought about how I was going to improve.
Sunday dawned clear and warm, I started the day in the best possible way by beating my time on the extreme by 9 seconds and winning the test by 3 seconds from Fabien Planet. On the mx I slipped off on a downhill turn and had a bad time but then on the Enduro test I was third. This really suprised me as the clutch was slipping quite bad. We decided to change it at the following check. However we encoutered problems as there was no feeling of a clutch at the bar as if we had missed out a plate or something. I told Pete to make sure that he got it right and we lost four minutes. As it turns out the spare clutch was for a 450 so the plates were of different thickness. Not the best news but something to learn for the future. At the next extreme test my traction control slipping clutch was no longer there and i crashed twice losing 21 seconds. I was beginning to wonder if we should have left the clutch alone. However on the next tests my times improved significantly, especially the Enduro test where I finished 3rd on the second lap and 2nd on the last lap. Not bad on a 11 odd minute test. I was well chuffed. To cap off the day I won the last extreme test.
My result? I was 3rd on tests but with my 4 minute penalty I was 20th and scored only one measly point.
The important thing for me is that I have demonstrated that I can compete with the best in the world. Roll on the next event!