July 25th we made our way up to Belgium from a little bit of time in the sand before the Lommel Grand Prix last week. All the guys out here have been telling me how crazy this sand race is and to be honest… I had no idea on what I was really getting myself into this past weekend. During the week practicing at some local sand tracks I was riding pretty well and on the clock I was pretty close to the top guys here in the sand, yet did I know that what we were riding was pretty much hard packed compared to this weekend.

It all hit me after my second practice that this weekend was not exactly going to be a fun one for me. It was quite strange for me to not adapt quickly to a track like I have been doing since May when I first got here. Every time I swing a leg over a bike here I have been forced to learn different terrain and have been doing well with that. In my 10 years of racing I have never seen anything like what I saw this weekend. By far it was the roughest track I have ever been on, the most difficult sand I have seen, and the first time I felt like I forgot how to ride a motorcycle. Ha ha. Me and a few others coming from America have the same opinion.

So with that said my results were 24-23 and I was pretty disappointed in that. I struggled all weekend long but I will say that I once again learned so much in the 2 days of racing this past weekend. I plan on spending most of my winter learning how to ride sand so this never happens again and am really focused on doing well in the 3 sand GP’s of next year. I am really hoping to stay here next year and learn as much as possible. I am learning all of my weak points and I am happy to learn them now instead of further in my career.

Right now I am just getting back into Hossegor, France where I am living and I am looking forward to this weekend while we head to Czech Republic for the Locket Grand Prix which is much more my riding style and terrain. I am feeling confident for the weeks to come and feeling more focused and determined then I have been in a long time.