WEEKENDER
MEET THE MX TEAM! HONDA’S FACTORY POWERHOUSE TOBY PRICE ON FINKE PROTECTION: WHAT AND WHY ATHLETE COLUMN: LEWIS WOODS LIFESTYLE: WINTER HAS ARRIVED
MATT MOSS | NATIONAL PUMP MONSTER ENERGY KAWASAKI RACING TEAM
ISSUE 1| JUNE 2016
IN FOCUS
D
efending MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo is right in the hunt for a fourth crown at Movistar Yamaha in 2016, with three wins already this season. Next year’s challenge? Ducati.
IN FOCUS
N
ow part of Monster Energy Kawasaki in American supercross and motocross, Eli Tomac’s facing one of the biggest transitions of his career. Still, race wins and podiums are constantly within reach.
IN FOCUS
C
rankt Protein Honda Racing’s current Australasian titleholder Troy Herfoss in the heat of battle for the 2016 Australian Superbike Championship.
CONTENTS IN FOCUS 2-3 Jorge Lorenzo 4-5 Eli Tomac 6-7 Troy Herfoss 44-45 Kade Mosig 46-47 Marc Marquez 48-49 Romain Febvre
FEATURES 12-17 Motocross athletes 28-33 Team Honda Racing
INTERVIEWS 18-23 Nathan Crawford 34-39 Toby Price
PROTECTION 24-25 Tech 10 Boot 40-41 Nucleon KR Protectors 50-51 Fluid Tech Carbon Knee Brace
COLUMNS 54-55 Jay ‘Bottle’ Thompson 56-57 Louis Gillick 58-59 Lewis Woods
LIFESTYLE 62-65 Winter 16 range
RACING 66-67 Dirt 68-69 Road
FEATURE
BATTLE
READY
MEET ALPINESTARS AUSTRALIA’S ALL-STAR MOTOCROSS ATHLETES.
A
lpinestars Australia has a significant position in the MX Nationals, Australian Motocross Championship, supporting a selection of the sport’s top MX1 and MX2 teams and racers. Along with a first-class VIP hospitality area at all 10 rounds, Alpinestars enjoys a major presence at the events across the country. Here’s a closer look at the squad of 2016.
BATTLE
READY
MATT MOSS
KADE MOSIG
Team: National Pump Monster Energy Kawasaki Number: 102 Age: 28 Category: MX1 Favoured product: All of them! Profile: Multiple national champion Moss has been instrumental in Alpinestars’ rise in the Australian motocross market since joining the team in 2014. Piloting the factory KX450F in 2016, Mossy won the season opening round at Horsham and will be a factor in this title hunt all the way to Coolum’s final round.
Team: National Pump Monster Energy Kawasaki Number: 8 Age: 26 Category: MX1 Favoured product: Fluro Tech 10s Profile: After finishing runner-up in both motocross and supercross last year, Mosig is carrying high expectations into 2016. It’s not all gone to plan in the season’s first half, however don’t be shocked to see him consistently bounce back onto the podium moving forward.
JAKE MOSS
JAY WILSON
Team: National Pump Monster Energy Kawasaki Number: 6 Age: 28 Category: MX2 Favoured product: Tech 8 boots Profile: Reverting to the 250 class this year, 2007 champion Jake Moss is a relative veteran of the class. Injuries have thwarted him in recent seasons, so the return to MX2 has been a valuable one, resulting in podiums during the first sector of the year. Round wins are on the radar.
Team: Crankt Protein Honda Racing Number: 6 Age: 21 Category: MX1 Favoured product: Can’t go past the Tech 10s Profile: Reigning MX2 champion Wilson is a high profile rookie in the premier class this season with the brand new Crankt Protein Honda Racing – partner team of the Australian Superbike squad. Undergoing surgery on an injured wrist in the break, Wilson is on track to finish the year strongly.
BATTLE
READY
DYLAN LONG
NATHAN CRAWFORD
Team: Crankt Protein Honda Racing Number: 117 Age: 21 Category: MX1 Favoured product: Tech 10s Profile: Hugely popular on social media for his flawless, modern style, Long has been a consistent top 10 finisher so far this year. As experience builds – both for himself and the factory Honda outfit – Long will further climb up the order in Australia’s toughest motocross division.
Team: Husqvarna Number: 199 Age: 18 Category: MX2 Favoured product: The entire range Profile: Currently leading the MX2 national championship, Crawford has established himself as one of the top young talents in the sport. A picture of consistency so far in 2016, a pivotal victory at Wanneroo will see him wear the red plates for the first time when the season resumes.
DYLAN WILLS Team: Raceline Pirelli KTM Number: 64 Age: 20 Category: MX2 Favoured product: Techstar Jersey/Pant Profile: With an SXD crown to his credit, Wills is another rising star with a major following. A past moto winner and podium finisher, it’s anticipated he’ll finish the final five rounds of the outdoors strongly and carry that form into supercross, where he’ll no doubt be a title contender.
KID
INTERVIEW
ON A MISSION NATO CRAWFORD TALKS FIRST HALF OF THE MX NATIONALS AND MORE.
T
he 2016 MX Nationals has thrown up a number of surprises and revelations so far, and none moreso than the speed, form and consistency of 18-year-old Husqvarna racer Nathan Crawford. The Queenslander has undergone a huge transformation this year, especially when you consider he entered the championship under-done as he recovered from a serious leg injury to lead the MX2 points chase at the halfway stage. We caught up with Crawford to find out how he’s turned his fortunes around.
KID
ON A MISSION
Nato, so far you’ve had a great outdoors season. Take us through it. Thanks. I’m really happy with how it’s going, but to be honest I was pretty worried at the start of the year. I got injured in Supercross right when everyone was signing deals for 2016, so it took ages to get that side of thing settled. On top of that I was trying to recover from injury, and I only had four weeks of riding before the season started, so I was quite nervous about how I’d go. I just did as much as I could and went into the first round with the mindset of just winging it, and I pulled out a second place! From then on I’ve just been clicking of the rounds; I’ve struggled with consistency in the past and have worked on that a lot, and I think my worst finish so far is a fourth overall, which is something to be proud of. Murray Bridge and Wanneroo are my two favourite tracks on the calendar and they were good to me again this year. I finished second at Murray Bridge then took my first moto win and first round win of the year at Wanneroo, which is the perfect way to go into the mid-season break. During the break I took one week off, but ever since I’ve been hard at it and working hard for Nowra in a few weeks’ time. You sort of touched on my injury you sustained last year. Can you give us a bit of a recap of what happened there? It was at round two of the Australian Supercross Championship at Jimboomba. I was in third position in my heat, but it was slippery as – I came out of a corner and didn’t get enough drive to the triple.
My bike went 90 degrees off the jump and the next thing I can remember is sitting in the ambo with a broken tibia and fibula, down near the ankle. I spent a week in hospital with surgery to pin the tibia and plate the fibula, then it was all about the recovery for six months. I turned into a bit of a fatty, so as soon as I was able to walk on it I got straight back into the gym to try and get my body as ready as possible for motocross. I’ve still got the hardware in now, it has to stay in for 18 months, but I’ve got to figure out a good time to eventually have it removed as that’ll mean I’ll be off the bike for another six months. What’s been the highlight of your season so far? It’d definitely have to be my victory at Wanneroo, simply because it was the first moto win [of the year] and first round win since 2014 when I did a wildcard MX2 race at Swan Hill and won the overall there. I won a moto or two last year but no overalls. Sand tracks are definitely my favourite, so to leave Wanneroo with the red plates at the same time, well I’ve never had that before. How does it feel to be in the driver’s seat of the MX2 championship at the halfway point? It feels really good, although I’ve only got a 13-point lead and in this sport that can go in a heartbeat. If I had the choice between running red and black backgrounds, though, I’d probably run black so there’s less pressure on me. I’ve never been in this situation before, so it’s a bit of a strange feeling.
KID
ON A MISSION
So you think there’ll be additional pressure with you having the red plates? I’m sure it’ll be at the back of my mind when I line up at Nowra, even though I’ll be working on my mentality of not worrying about it. You hear riders talking about the red plates being a load on the shoulders, but as of right now I’m not feeling it. We’ll see what happens when we line up for round six. Does this position change your game plan at all for the next half of the MX Nationals? Definitely not. Obviously what we’ve been doing is working so to change it up now would be to risk going backwards. We enter every weekend with the mindset that the scoreboard has been reset to zero points and if we start from there and not worry about the background colour of my plates I’m confident we’ll be alright. But yeah, I think that making any changes to my current program or race strategy would be silly.
Obviously you’ve focused on your consistency, but your starts this year have also been a huge improvement on last year. Oh for sure. My starts hurt me a lot last year and in the first five rounds in 2016 I’ve been in the top five every time and scored a couple of holeshots as well. Getting a good start is 50 percent of the race, and then it’s all on me to make sure I don’t make silly mistakes and end up on the ground. Fortunately that’s only happened to me once so far. Hypothetically, if you win the MX2 championship this year, what’s the plan for 2017? Will you step up to MX1? I’m still really young - I’m not even 19 yet – so another year in MX2 definitely won’t hurt. My main aim is to win the championship this year, then if I do that I want to back it up with a win next year, which is something that hasn’t been done in Australia for a long time. If I can do that I’ll be happy.
What’s been the biggest learning curve for you so far this year?
That’s a good point about your age; it’s easy to forget you’re only 18.
As far as racecraft and stuff goes, I think I learnt more last year than this year, but I’ve been able to put it more into practice this year. I think the biggest thing I’ve learnt in 2016 though, is how much consistency pays off. I’ve learnt not to rush or force the issue, take the eighth place like I did at Appin, then back it up with a second in the second race. I’ve learnt not to get frustrated, but to regroup and try and do better next time out. For me it was slowing the mind down and not rushing anything as that can make your day even worse. It’s such an easy trap to fall into, but it rarely pays off. I’m still young but my mind has matured a lot and I can take those fifth places and not be upset about it. I try and keep a positive head on my shoulders and smooth my riding out, and that’s helped improve my speed.
Yeah, heaps of people think I’m older than I actually am! Physically I’m quite tall, and I only did one year in the Under 19s in 2014 before jumping straight up to MX2 last year. I think you need to be quite mature to race the 450 class, so I’m not in any real rush to race against those boys yet. So fast-forward a bunch of years: what’s the big endgoal for your career. The dream would be to race in Europe or ideally the US. It’s tough to get a ride over there, but my ultimate goal will be to race the AMA Supercross and Motocross championships. I’ll keep working towards that dream, putting my name out there and we’ll see what happens from there.
ALPINESTARS TECH 10 BOOT
PROTECTION
KEY FEATURES: - Sophisticated quick-release/lock buckle system with aluminium bridges. - One-piece co-injected foot chassis with five advanced polymer compounds. - Lightweight upper combines full-grain leather with advanced lightweight microfiber and an impact and abrasion resistant TPU shell. - Medial-facing panel is constructed from a one-piece, specifically formulated polymer, incorporating a rubber insert panel. - Protection maximised through TPU front and rear blade systems. - Innovative ergonomic design for lateral and medial flex zones. - Biomechanical inner ankle brace features medial and lateral ‘C’ torsion bars, while allowing freedom of movement. - Exclusive dual compound and replaceable sole with built-in support. - The Tech 10 boot is CE certified. - Approximate total weight per pair 4.17kg (size US 10). - Produced sizing: US 7-14 / EUR 40.5-49.5. - RRP $699.95
ALPINESTARS PROTECTS KADE MOSIG “I choose the Alpinestars Tech 10 boot because it’s ultra-comfortable and safety is paramount for us as professional athletes, as it should be for all riders. And at the moment I am a huge fan of the fluro look - they look so good with my Techstar gear!”
FEATURE
CROSS OVER CRANKT PROTEIN HONDA RACING’S FACTORY MX NATIONALS AND ASBK EFFORT.
CROSS OVER
C
rankt Protein Honda Racing is one of the most celebrated teams in the Australian Superbike Championship. Boasting no less than seven national titles since its debut in 2002, it’s widely recognised as one of the premier motorcycle racing operations in the country. And for 2016, Honda Australia’s factory squad – operated by Victorian-based performance tuning specialists Motologic – has also taken charge of Honda’s official Motocross and Supercross race team. It’s a working relationship that continues to evolve, year-on-year. “It’s been something we’ve built and worked on together for many years,” explained team principal Paul Free. “I started working with Honda 2002, in-house as a factory team, when I re-established a team after they closed up shop previously. “For a few years I worked inside Honda until the end of 2007 and then we moved out and started our own gig at Motologic. It’s been going for a long time. I’d like to think I do the right thing by them and they do the right thing by me – it’s turned into a really good working relationship.” In 2016 the Superbike team is fielding Troy Herfoss and multiple national champion Jamie Stauffer in the ASBK, coming off a title-winning year for Herfoss and the immaculate CBR1000RR SP in the Australasian Superbike Championship last season. Crankt Protein Honda Racing’s involvement with the manufacturer doesn’t stop on track, with the team brand, transporter, equipment and riders becoming increasingly involved in Honda marketing programs nationally, including events such as the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix and Clipsal 500 Supercars. “We do a lot more than just going racing now,” he added. “I’d like to feel that we are a fairly integral part of their marketing operation. With the assets that we have, with our riders and trucks and all the additionals that we work with, it seems to work pretty well. “
CROSS CROSS OVER OVER
On top of all that, Free closely oversees Motologic’s state of the art workshop between events, which features everything from general servicing, dyno tuning, suspension set-up, race bike preparation and more. It goes hand-in-hand with the Honda racing projects. “Obviously going into the dirt side with the motocross racing, I’d like to increase our dirt presence in the workshop,” commented Free. “Being based in Melbourne, over the summer it’s very heavy road bike servicing and tuning, that sort of thing, but in the winter it slows right down. So I’d like to increase our dirt bike work within the shop. The experience is there the knowledge is there, so it only makes sense.”
A major aspect of having both Superbike and MX Nationals/Supercross teams is the opportunity for legitimate unity between the pair. From sponsorships to activations, Crankt Protein Honda Racing shares many resources both at and away from the racetrack. “When we took on the motocross team with Honda, I wanted to align all the sponsors as much as I could,” he continued. “It makes sense for people getting involved with their brands to cross over both disciplines. That way also, if I’m using Alpinestars on the road team and another brand on the motocross team, no-one is going to get any value. So it only made sense to do that.
Team Honda Racing’s expansion into motocross as a full factory operation has come as an entirely new challenge in 2016. Free called upon the vast experience of renowned Honda off-road technician Pip Harrison to operate the dirt division, signing the youthful combination of current MX2 national champion Jay Wilson and Dylan Long.
“Alpinestars is a product we have used for a long time and we had support for the road team, so that was my first thought with the motocross team, was to go to Alpinestars. I didn’t question that – that was a simple one. The product has been fantastic for us on the road and the guys love it in the motocross team as well. Alpinestars, matched with the Bell helmets through Monza Imports, works a treat. It’s fantastic!”
“It’s a race team, so you know what works on any race team is going to work on any other discipline of motorsport,” Free said. “I believe you create a culture, which we have in the road race team, and that’s just what I’m trying, to build that same thought process and that same culture into the motocross team. If we do, it will be successful.”
While the Superbike team continues to excel in the premier ranks of Australian racing, Wilson and Long are climbing the MX1 results sheets outdoors in the MX Nationals and will only improve further when the series resumes at Nowra in July. For the Crankt Protein Honda Racing team, it’s not a matter of if they will succeed; it’s when.
CHAMPIONSHIP CREDENTIALS
2004 AUSTRALIAN SUPERBIKE CHAMPION ADAM FERGUSSON 2004 AUSTRALIAN SUPERSPORT CHAMPION ADAM FERGUSSON 2005 AUSTRALIAN SUPERBIKE CHAMPION JOSH BROOKES 2005 AUSTRALIAN SUPERSPORT CHAMPION JOSH BROOKES 2008 AUSTRALIAN SUPERBIKE CHAMPION GLENN ALLERTON 2014 AUSTRALASIAN SUPERBIKE CHAMPION WAYNE MAXWELL 2015 AUSTRALASIAN SUPERBIKE CHAMPION TROY HERFOSS
INTERVIEW
DAKAR RALLY CHAMP TOBY PRICE ON HIS INCREDIBLE FINKE DESERT FEAT.
H
istory-making off-road ace Toby Price has proved his might on the world stage in 2016, clinching victory at his second attempt in the Dakar Rally and achieving further international rally success afterwards. But as he does, in typical TP fashion, Price came home to conquer a fifth Finke Desert Race while also taking on another challenge in the form of four wheels. Here’s his take on a huge year so far.
How’s it feel to win five Finke Desert Races and match the record?
Do you remember the first time you did it? And how do you compare that feeling to now?
It was the main goal to try and win five. It definitely is amazing. I feel very pumped and excited – hopefully this will stick for a fair while. Five wins definitely has for a few years, so hopefully we can come back next year and add one more to it and see how we go.
I definitely remember my first year in 2010. I just remember how wild the race was. For sure it was a big shock and I didn’t know what I was in for. I definitely enjoyed it and I loved the speed and the feeling like you’re traveling at really high speeds and putting on a good show for everyone. This is our fifth win out of the seven that we have been involved in, so we can’t complain at all.
Explain what it’s like to be full throttle from Alice Springs to Finke and back… To do the leg on the bike and keeping full throttle both ways, there are no words to describe it really. It’s an amazing feeling. If you can get down that track without cartwheeling and hurting yourself it definitely is the best feeling you can get. Just the speed and everyone on the side of the track cheering you on, there is no feeling like it. This is what keeps drawing me back to this event. I love being a part of it and seeing if we can do quicker times and this year we definitely did. I think we went six or seven minutes quicker than last year’s times. It was a pretty cool weekend.
As a guy who embraces challenges, this year you took on the Truck this year as well, competing in the four-wheel event! For a little while there I didn’t quite register on what I was doing. I was definitely excited once I announced it. When I got up there for the week leading up to the event I saw the track change and form into different ways and it was becoming a tough task. I was just excited to be a part of it and wanted to try to be the best that I could in both classes. The results we got on the weekend were pretty remarkable and amazing. We are stoked that we went through with it. Once the weekend kicks off your head just switches on to what you need to do – you get in there and get it done.
That must have been logistically a very major project? Yeah, it was for sure. It definitely wasn’t put together over night. There was a lot of thought and a lot of planning to get it put into place for that event. Logistically it was a nightmare, just crazy and wild. Once it all just fell into place and got rolling it wasn’t too bad. I steered the truck really well and got down there pretty quick. To come back to get ready for the bike leg, I was flying back in a light aircraft, but I still had an hour and 10 minutes before I took off for the bike leg. It wasn’t too bad. However if we started having problems it would have got very interesting. Are four wheels where you see your career headed, sooner or later? Definitely not sooner [laughs], but later for sure. I definitely still like my two wheel stuff and that is my main priority and my main focus. Hopefully the Finke race showed that where I went three to four seconds minutes quicker each way on both days. I wanted to go there and prove a point that I wasn’t taking it light-hearted and not doing what I was meant to be doing. Eventually I want my racing to go into some four wheel stuff - I’m not getting any younger.
What is it that you most enjoy about the Finke Desert Race? I think it’s the atmosphere. Just the amount of people who come out to watch this race is pretty remarkable. People just stand out there and camp out for the weekend and get to enjoy something that we love to do, which is to compete at this race. It’s a wild event and its definitely one that if anyone hasn’t done it and its on their bucket list they need to come out and get it done because it just comes back to me with that cool atmosphere and having a great time together. Can you compare it to the Dakar Rally in any way? There are some bits to it that are little bit the same. Both between Finke and Dakar they are their own unique events; they have their own style of things that are good and some which are bad. The Dakar Rally is such a long event and crazy, whereas Finke is pretty much a high-speed race which is more like a sprint. You don’t have a long as a day, although this year we had a long day competing in both categories. They are different in their own ways.
Where does this Finke victory, considering you also raced the Truck, stand in terms of career achievements?
Tell us about the 500 EXC that you compete aboard in the desert. How far customised is it for this type of competition?
For sure, this year I could have gone back and just rode the bike. It all went well and we won the race and won five on the bike, but it would have been just the same result and the same thing. Definitely putting the car category in it spiced things up a little bit and made it challenging, which is something that I have wanted to do for three years now in the Finke race. We ended up doing well with it. This one stands up there, which was the most challenging, because we were up so early. I just wanted to put my body up for a challenge and get it done.
The biggest part for us is the suspension. It’s a complete different set-up to where you would run anywhere else. You wouldn’t run this set-up that we have at Finke anywhere else in the world. Other than that it’s just personal preference stuff like a bit of a higher seat, footpegs and steering dampers. Then the just the motor reliability. The bike is really strong anyway, but with us on there we just put different bearings and make it more high tech. Then we put a pipe and exhaust and that’s about it. It’s still very similar to being a stock bike but – they definitely get along pretty quick.
Is Dakar the biggest one? Yeah, for sure. Dakar is still my biggest achievement. I’m the first Australian to win that event and I don’t think that will ever be overtaken by any event. For sure, winning five Finke desert races is definitely up there in my record books as well. To be tied with the most wins out there is nothing to be sneezed at, that’s for sure. It’s not too bad, hopefully we can get one more.
What’s next in the whirlwind life of Toby Price? That’s a good question [laughs]. I haven’t sat back and thought about it as yet! We will be definitely sitting down and thinking about another weird and crazy idea on what we want to archive. We have to look forward to the next Dakar in 2017, so we will see what’s to come.
ALPINESTARS NUCLEON KR PROTECTORS
PROTECTION
KR-1
KR-1 FEATURES: - Back protection CE certified Level 2 to the latest standards. - Hard-shell vertebrae protection and high energy absorbing viscoelastic memory foam, uncompromising in safety and performance. - Ergonomically profiled for sport riding with superb ventilation features. - Sizing XS-XL. - RRP $199.95.
KR-R FEATURES: - Track and race back protector CE certified Level 2 to the latest standards. - Performance cooling, flexibility and anatomical contouring. - Hybrid of hard shell and energy absorbing viscoelastic memory foam is lightweight and breathable for optimised protection and comfort. - Features include waist adjustment for customised fit, a snap-on system to fix protector to a suit or jacket and a slim vented kidney belt. - Sizing XS-XL. - RRP $189.95.
KR-R
ALPINESTARS PROTECTS TROY HERFOSS “Wearing the Alpinestars Nucleon Protector is an easy choice for me. The safety standards are extremely high and it feels like an extension of my body on the track combined with the rest of my gear. It’s one of the most important pieces of equipment we use.”
IN FOCUS
A
fter finishing second in both the MX Nationals and Australian Supercross in 2015, Kade Mosig has moved to National Pump Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team in search of the next step.
IN FOCUS
D
ual MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez is back to his best with Repsol Honda in 2016, leading the standings eight rounds in after taking two wins and seven podiums to date.
IN FOCUS
A
fter clinching the MXGP crown in his rookie year, reigning champion Romain Febvre has just signed a brand new three-year extension with the factory to race in Europe through 2019, prior to his Matterley Basin injury.
ALPINESTARS FLUID TECH CARBON KNEE BRACE
PROTECTION
KEY FEATURES: - CE Certified to EN 1621-1 (K type B) and extremely lightweight, strong construction from an advanced carbon polymer compound. - Incorporates DEFT - Dynamic ErgoFit Tech - an innovative, reduced material design construction for improved weight-saving and ergonomic performance. - Knee pivot system incorporates tool-free poly-centric hinge system for fast, easily exchangeable extension stops (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 degrees) to prevent hyperextension. - Sculptured knee cup system constructed from semi-rigid TPU for durability, backed by shock-absorbing PU memory foam for comfort. - Highly ventilated, channeled padding and mesh zones for superb airflow cooling. - Customisable, versatile and secure fit afforded by size adapter system. - ErgoFit spacer kits for improved directional articulation performance and position stability, including medial-side spacer insert. - Correct positioning of knee cup secured accurately with top and bottom elastic straps. - Soft dual strap system promotes secure fitment of brace and includes combined buckle and VelcroÂŽ closures for rapid mounting and comfort. - Comes in international sizes S/M/L-XL/2XL. - RRP $449.95 each.
ALPINESTARS PROTECTS DYLAN WILLS “I love the fit of the Fluid Tech Carbon Knee Braces from Alpinestars. They’re so snug in your leg, it just gives you that safe feeling that you want when riding and they’re super-comfortable with my gear and boot combination as well. It works all together.”
COLUMN
JAY ‘BOTTLE’
THOMPSON SURFING ATHLETE ‘BOTTLE’ CHECKS IN WITH THE LATEST IN HIS WORLD.
Q
uick wrap-up on what’s been happening in the life of Bottle! One word that would sum up my life at the moment is hectic. My fingers are in so many pies, I need a few extra fingers… The second quarter of this year didn’t go as planned. It started with me flying over the handlebars of my pushbike. I had nothing but a pair of shorts and shoes on, so I ripped off a solid amount of bark and buckled my shoulder pretty badly. On a positive, my shiny red bike come out unscathed. Due to the bike accident, it’s given me a chance to catch up on the rest of my life. I’m currently in the process of running my own elite surf coaching program, motivational camps, lifeguarding and training up a storm for my next surf adventure. My training schedule has been a little unstructured recently due to me running around like a blue-arsed fly, but I do however train at least 4-5 times/week. From mobility and strength training in the gym, pool sessions to underwater rock running. I like to mix my sessions up to keep things fresh. Now that I am not competing on the World Surfing Tour, I made the decision to hunt down a few larger swells. Whilst on tour, it’s hard to pounce on swells as there is minimal time in between events – you just want to be home training, cooking roast dinners and snuggling up to your partner. I’m actually on a flight home from Fiji while writing this and the waves were incredible – some of the biggest waves I have ever seen. One of the days got to 15-20 feet, although I have to be honest, on that particular day I didn’t paddle out as I felt like my preparation was not good enough and didn’t want to put my life on the line. One of the best big wave specialist in the world, Aaron Gold, drowned and got brought back to life earlier that day, which was a massive reality check.
As mentioned, I have recently launched my own elite coaching clinic for young aspiring professional surfers. Rumours have it that professional surfing may be going to the Beijing Olympics, so my goal is to share my knowledge and work with Australia’s most talented surfers with a Gold medal in sight. Next month I will also be running a coaching camp in Indonesia with a bunch of kids who want to make a career out of professional surfing. The target is to give the kids a better understanding on what it takes to be a professional surfer. I’ll be covering competition strategy, technique advice, mental preparation, equipment and much more. As I am a qualified professional lifeguard, I am including a water safety and a CPR course. Its inevitable that one day, we all may be faced with a life-threatening situation and have to help someone out, so what a perfect opportunity, teaching these kids how to read the ocean and learn how to save a life one day. My other Melbourne-based business is called ‘Winning Formula’ (www.thewinningformula.com.au). Myself and three other athletes from different sporting backgrounds formed a small business to help athletes reach their full potential. We have collaborated all our experiences/knowledge in our own sporting fields and packaged it up, so every athlete understands the important steps to success. Anyways team, that’s what’s been happening in the life of ‘Bottle’. After four days of sitting inside a two-meter long tinny looking into direct sunlight, my eyeballs feel like they are getting cut in half by an angle grinder and I can’t keep looking at this screen! If you got this far reading my horrid spelling and grammar you must have a very high tolerance level, but thanks a bloody lot for staying interested. If you want to follow my adventures throughout life, you can find my rude head on on Instragram, @bottle82. Stay happy, stay humble!
COLUMN
LOUIS
GILLICK CHECKING IN WITH THE EMERGING SURFING TALENT.
I
t’s been a mixed year so far in 2016, although I’ve been enjoying my surfing a lot and feeling pretty solid. My first comp was at Maroubra at the QS1000 and I finished fifth, so it was a good result and a great start to the year. My next event was two weeks later up at Burleigh Heads in Queensland and I was going into the event with good confidence knowing I was surfing the best I ever have and was expecting another result, but the day before the event practicing, the comp bank didn’t make a wave and it slammed me into the bottom, hitting my head, blacked out and woke up on the beach. That shook me up a fair bit, I was just thankful people saw me unconscious in the water to pull me out. I was taken to hospital and diagnosed with a concussion, but it happened at a bad time because I had four competitions in a month, so I had to pull out of a few because for the next two months I had to several different types of scans to find out if my head was okay, which it was.
After that I have been back training hard working myself back to where I was and went to Hawaii for a month to test myself. I got some really big and good waves, but split my head open surfing, so it’s definitely been a difficult time in terms of those injures . Following that I came back home, trained hard and flew off to Martinique for a QS3000, but didn’t do as well as I would have liked, so it was back home again. I worked and trained then went back to Hawaii for three weeks, where I had another event. I was feeling good, made a few rounds and was getting scores in the excellent range, but in one heat the ocean didn’t cooperate and sent me no waves resulting in me getting knocked out. Again, another knock to the head and confidence. And that leaves me to today, where I am now home for two months working, surfing and training hard, feeling good again for the European leg next in August. Hopefully in that part of the season I can string some strong results together and finish up the season on a high note!
COLUMN
F
or 2016 I have opted to only race Supercross, like I did last year. I would like to race the MX Nationals, but the budget to go race that series competitively is just too big for a privateer effort. This way I get to focus on SX, which I enjoy better anyway, and it frees up the first half of my year to run more Woods MX riding clinics and ride at freeride events such as Farm Jam, GP FMX, etc. I was lucky enough to be invited to ride at Farm Jam 16, which is a freeride FMX/BMX/MTB event located on the South Island of New Zealand. This place is such a sick spot to run an event like this because of its huge green rolling hills, which make for rad natural terrain lines.
Farm Jam is run so well and the whole Frew family, who organise the event, are such good people and are in it for the same reason as everyone else. Once I got the invite, KTM Australia organised me a brand new 450 SX-F to rip over there and I was on the plane over with my SX suspension in my bag. I won the Best Whip comp and finished fourth in the Speed and Style, which I was so pumped with. I saw some of the best riding go down from everyone and also got to meet some rad BMX guys and watch them rip the huge trails after our event was done. It reminded me of the Red Bull X-Ray event that Maddo used to run in Picton, NSW. Since that event back in 2010 I’ve always really liked riding big natural terrain
LEWIS
WOODS FREERIDE AND SUPERCROSS ACE ON HIS ASSORTED 2016 SCHEDULE.
jumps with a bunch of talented athletes and having thousands of people on the hillside chillin’ out in the sun watching us have fun. After that I was also invited to run in Best Whip at the GP FMX event held at the Formula 1 in Albert Park. This event was very much similar in classes with Freestyle, Speed and Style and Best whip. I finished a close second place in Best Whip and fourth in Speed and Style. Right now I am starting to get everything organised to go race the Australian Supercross series that kicks off in around three months. I plan on racing the SX2 class on board a KTM 250 SX-F as I am a super lightweight and can’t get the kilos up to race the SX1 class again.
The combination of racing SX, competing in freeride events and running my Woods MX riding clinics is great for me. It also keeps my sponsors happy, which make my whole program possible. Big thanks to KTM Australia, Woods MX, Alpinestars, Bell, Scott, Fist, Ride Park, Go Pro and C&M Roof Tiling. Thanks a lot guys!
WINTER 16 RANGE
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RACING
DIRT 2016 AUSTRALIAN MX NATIONALS CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER 5/10 ROUNDS
2016 PRO MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER 5/12 ROUNDS
MX1: 1. Kirk Gibbs (Alpinestars) 351pts 2. Todd Waters 334 3. Dean Ferris (Alpinestars) 324 4. Matt Moss (Alpinestars) 314 5. Kade Mosig (Alpinestars) 267 6. Dylan Long (Alpinestars) 258 7. Brett Metcalfe (Alpinestars) 225 8. Jay Wilson (Alpinestars) 221 9. Jacob Wright (Alpinestars) 193 10. Michael Menchi (Alpinestars) 188
450 CLASS: 1. Ken Roczen 243pts 2. Eli Tomac (Alpinestars) 196 3. Cole Seely 151 4. Marvin Musquin (Alpinestars) 136 5. Ryan Dungey 131 6. Jason Anderson (Alpinestars) 113 7. Broc Tickle 109 8. Justin Barcia (Alpinestars) 108 9. Christophe Pourcel 107 10. Trey Canard (Alpinestars) 97
MX2: 1. Nathan Crawford (Alpinestars) 326pts 2. Jed Beaton (Alpinestars) 313 3. Caleb Ward (Alpinestars) 305 4. Jayden Rykers 280 5. Wilson Todd 270 6. Kyle Webster 261 7. Jake Moss (Alpinestars) 255 8. Dylan Wills (Alpinestars) 239 9. Dean Porter (Alpinestars) 228 10. Hamish Harwood 226
250 CLASS: 1. Joey Savatgy 205pts 2. Cooper Webb 193 3. Jeremy Martin 173 4. Alex Martin 158 5. Zach Osborne 152 6. Austin Forkner 138 7. Aaron Plessinger 131 8. RJ Hampshire (Alpinestars) 103 9. Jordon Smith (Alpinestars) 100 10. Shane McElrath (Alpinestars) 96
2016 MXGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER 12/18 ROUNDS MXGP: 1. Tim Gajser (Alpinestars) 532pts 2. Antonio Cairoli 440 3. Romain Febvre (Alpinestars) 408 4. Maximilian Nagl 401 5. Evgeny Bobryshev 396 6. Jeremy Van Horebeek (Alpinestars) 351 7. Valentin Guillod (Alpinestars) 267 8. Glenn Coldenhoff 230 9. Shaun Simpson (Alpinestars) 212 10. Clement Desalle (Alpinestars) 210 MX2: 1. Jeffrey Herlings (Alpinestars) 597pts 2. Jeremy Seewer 428 3. Pauls Jonass (Alpinestars) 403 4. Benoit Paturel 325 5. Aleksandr Tonkov 320 6. Dylan Ferrandis 308 7. Max Anstie 274 9. Petar Petrov 253 8. Samuele Bernardini 253 10. Vsevolod Brylyakov 219
RACING
ROAD 2016 AUSTRALIAN SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER 4/6 ROUNDS
2016 MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER 8/18 ROUNDS
SUPERBIKE: 1. Wayne Maxwell 176pts 2. Glenn Allerton 171 3. Troy Herfoss (Alpinestars) 158 4. Mike Jones 137 5. Ben Burke 114 6. Cru Halliday 106 7. Daniel Falzon 103 8. Brayden Elliott (Alpinestars) 91 9. Jamie Stauffer (Alpinestars) 84 10. Matt Walters 73
MOTOGP: 1. Marc Marquez (Alpinestars) 145pts 2. Jorge Lorenzo (Alpinestars) 121 3. Valentino Rossi 103 4. Dani Pedrosa (Alpinestars) 86 5. Maverick Vinales (Alpinestars) 79 6. Pol Espargaro 72 7. Hector Barbera 58 8. Andrea Iannone 52 9. Aleix Espargaro (Alpinestars) 49 10. Eugene Laverty (Alpinestars) 48
SUPERSPORT: 1. Sam Clarke (Alpinestars) 162pts 2. Troy Guenther 152 3. Callum Spriggs 143.5 4. Luke Mitchell 137 5. Ben Blyth (Alpinestars) 114.5 6. Chris Quinn 92 7. Nic Liminton (Alpinestars) 89.5 8. Ted Collins (Alpinestars) 83.5 9. Robbie Menzies 70 10. Mark Chiodo (Alpinestars) 53.5
MOTO2: 1. Johann Zarco 126pts 2. Alex Rins 126 3. Sam Lowes 121 4. Thomas Luthi (Alpinestars) 93 5. Takaaki Nakagami (Alpinestars) 78 6. Franco Morbidelli 66 7. Jonas Folger (Alpinestars) 63 8. Hafizh Syahrin 60 9. Simone Corsi 59 10. Dominique Aegerter 59
2016 SUPERBIKE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER 8/13 ROUNDS MOTO3: 1. Brad Binder 151pts 2. Jorge Navarro (Alpinestars) 103 3. Romano Fenati 93 4. Francesco Bagnaia 79 5. Nicolo Bulega 75 6. Niccolo Antonelli 63 7. Joan Mir 50 8. Enea Bastianini (Alpinestars) 49 9. Fabio Di Giannantonio (Alpinestars) 47 10. Jakub Kornfeil 45
SUPERBIKE: 1. Jonathan Rea (Alpinestars) 343pts 2. Tom Sykes 277 3. Chaz Davies (Alpinestars) 244 4. Davide Giugliano 165 5. Michael van der Mark 163 6. Nicky Hayden 146 7. Jordi Torres 137 8. Leon Camier 105 9. Lorenzo Savadori 100 10. Alex Lowes 81 SUPERSPORT: 1. Kenan Sofuoglu 146pts 2. Randy Krummenacher 106 3. PJ Jacobsen 92 4. Gino Rea 78 5. Jules Cluzel 75 6. Federico Caricasulo 74 7. Alex Baldolini 69 8. Kyle Smith 68 9. Ayrton Badovini 49 10. Zulfahmi Khairuddin (Alpinestars) 40
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