Christian Iddon .............................. 111 Iddon is keeping himself busy and keeping himself fit, ready for the BSB season to start.
It's the time of year when us racers use our 'need to train' mentality as an excuse to ship out to warmer climates. This year my plans have needed a kind of military precision that would put the most acclaimed travel agents to shame. In fact, once I'm done with my racing I think I may have found my second calling. So, it all starts at the beginning of February. Step 1: get a van, fill it with a Panigale, some tyres, some tools (for someone else to use), my bicycle, two kit bags and a handful of pairs of pants. Step 2: set off in search of somewhere warm and get set for the season ahead.
At the time of writing, Step 1 is fully box ticked. The little PBM Vito is packed to the roof with the essentials for a month away. I'm travelling solo. Starting out with a 650km drive from the workshop to Portsmouth to get the two-day ferry to Bilbao in the north of Spain, followed by an 800km onward drive. Well, that was the plan anyway until Storm Katrina reared her ugly head. Road closures and accidents meant that on a nine-hour trip to Portsmouth, I arrived three minutes before check-in closed. That left me just enough time to find out my ferry was cancelled, and instead of the long sea journey to Spain I was only hopping the Channel to France. Nine hours on a boat in the middle of a storm to France and no sleep in the bank, it was a 2,100km jaunt to Portimao. Not so rock and roll!
Anyway, after 19 hours of solid driving later I finally made it at 5am and here I am, ready for the adventure to begin. I'm starting out with a couple of days of cycling with my WSBK pal Eugene Laverty, who has recently based himself in a nice new pad on the Algarve before my dad and girlfriend fly into Faro. I'll pick them up from there and it's off to circuit number one. A couple of days at Monteblanco on the test bike will start things off before I have to fly back to London for an evening (with the missus in tow) for the launch of the 2020 PBM team.
I've not been in the team long, but I already know Paul Bird doesn't do things by halves so we are having our bash at the Shard. Should be epic!
First thing the next morning I'll jump back on a plane to Spain (while the girlfriend gets a different plane back to Geordieland), and by then I hope my dad has found his way to Cartegena (we left him in Spain, remember), and got everything set up for another couple of days of track action. I land at 10am so I figure I should be back on track by noon. Happy days. After we are done at Cartegena, I'll drop El Padre back off at the airport. His mechanic-ing duties duly fulfilled, he can go home happy and I'll be back on my own, to make my way in the direction of Almeria to meet up with friends for a couple of days of cycling.
Then it's back in the van and off to Jerez, where I plan to get three more days on the practice bike (are you keeping up?), and then back to Monteblanco ready for the real stuff to begin. The time frame now has taken us up to the end of February. The PBM Ducati boys will have the big rig ready for the BSB official testing and things will be getting serious now. We have three days at Monteblanco, a rest day, and then two more days at Jerez, along with the rest of the BSB championship. It will be the first time I'll get to compare myself and my new set up with the guys
I'll be fighting against in the championship. It's always an exciting time of year as it’s the first time you get to see how the winter prep has set you up for the season.
I already can't wait to get back on the Ducati. Even since my short run out before Christmas I know we have some new parts at our disposal so it will be interesting to see how they work out. Anyway, that's enough from me. If anyone wants me in the next month just leave a message, I'm away on 'business'.