Here's Leon Haslam's blogged thoughts as he prepares for the first WSB race of the season. Interesting reading!
Not long now and we’ll be starting the first race weekend of the year and I cannot wait. It seems a long time since the last race, but I’ve kept busy over the winter and trained a lot to be 100% for Australia.
I left England on February12th and flew to Singapore. I spent the night there then went to an Island called Bintan, about 40 kms away, and was there for three and a bit days. Oli and I stayed at a small resort and during our stay we went on an elephant safari, did some archery and some bodyboarding. The resort had a good gym, so I also kept up my training programme. There was a variety of food at the resort and sometimes I ate sushi and sometimes Italian. We went from there to Melbourne and arrived on the 18th and straight to the kangaroo park and fed some of them whilst Oli took the usual photos. Next day we went to the track and met up with everybody and talked to the mechanics and prepared for the two-day test. I was really happy at the end of the test because we had done a lot of good work on getting the bike ready for the race and working out a good strategy. We didn’t chase any lap times at all, because they weren’t as important as sorting out the bike for the race.
The following day, Sylvain and I went surfing at Smithy Beach and although the waves weren’t so good, we had a great time anyway. We had to be a bit careful because there was a strong undercurrent, which made getting out a bit hard, but it was fun anyway. After meeting my team for lunch it was off to the golf course for a round with Pere Riba and Roger Lee Hayden. In the evening I had dinner with the team and an early night because we had to be at the circuit by 8.15 the next morning to get a helicopter to Melbourne for a media event. Eight of us riders went to the Eureka Tower and the Skydeck on the 88th floor where we met the Minister for Sport and a load of photos and interviews were done. On the way back to Phillip Island, I sat next to the pilot which was pretty cool and I got some great views at the same time.
Back on the island and I went fishing with my dad, Cal Crutchlow and his dad. We caught about eight decent fish and had a nice relaxed time. In the evening I had dinner with the team in a Mexican restaurant and an early night again. Thursday morning I went to the track to talk to my team and get ready for first practice on Friday.
I love coming to Phillip Island because it is one of the few places we go to where we can spend some chill-out time, have some fun, do some sports and some sight-seeing. There are heaps of things to do and it’s great to have the chance to do so much, when normally we are in and out of a country pretty quickly. And the circuit is fantastic so it’s a great place to start the championship.
Thanks to Suzuki Racing for this!
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