The End to my longest podium streak.

Hello guys,

Sorry for the late post this week but it has been pretty hectic as I have now traveled from Norway to Latvia and back and I'm now in Sweden!

This weekend's GP was in Latvia. Most of the Americans who will read this will have to get their globe out to find it! The circuit we raced at was called "Zelta Zirgs" or "Black Horse". I won the 2004 Junior World Championship there so to go back was a pretty cool thing for me. We arrived on Thursday afternoon and got a cab to our hotel. Friday morning we woke up and went to meet my team manager, Steve Dixon, and my teammate, Mel Pocock, for some lunch at a nice buffet I first discovered in 2004. Then we went to the track to check things out. Friday evening we went for dinner (again at the same buffet). About three hours later I found myself hanging over the toilet with an empty stomach. I'm still telling myself it wasn't the food that caused me to throw up...

Saturday morning came really early for me after being sick for much of the night. I woke up feeling tired and still a bit woozy from the night's events. Let's just say it wasn't my best day of the season. I ended up 11th in the qualifying race after being one of the last three people around the first corner. Sunday morning brought more energy and brighter feelings. The warm up went well as I tried a couple of different tire choices. In the first moto, I got a decent start but a fall in the first turn pretty much ended my race. While I was on the ground someone ran over the bike and my exhaust was dangling from the bike for the first few laps. I pulled in for a new exhaust hoping not to lose much time. When I left the pit box I was already almost two laps down, so on the next lap my technician pulled me in for good. After a zero score in race 1 I knew I needed some good points from moto 2. I got a decent start and worked up to 6th but a last lap effort saw a sweet pass around the outside for 5th! Although the first moto caused me to end my longest podium streak thus far, I was happy with my second moto result.

Monday morning was an early flight at 6:45 which meant a cab at 4:30! That put us back in to Oslo at around 7. We gathered our stuff and headed off on our next journey to Halmstad in Sweden. It's a nice vacation area with beaches, nearby tracks, and some really good cycling. I'm taking a slightly easy week this week because it's my 6th straight week of racing (including the long trip to Glen Helen) so I'm pretty tired at this point.

I really look forward to this week's GP of Uddevalla and then a nice break for a couple of weeks. I'll update you all again soon!

Thanks for reading!
--Zach