MORE RECORDS!

My life is never boring, as I am sure you can imagine. We had a party with my family and friends to celebrate my new world record in the world trials championship, which I really enjoyed. My season is not over yet and since the last world round, in Spain, I was a member of the winning Trials Des Nations team with Adam Raga, Jeroni Fajardo and Albert Cabestany the day after the WTC. It’s a strange affair riding as a team when they had been my rivals the day before, but we all remain friends away from the sport. I have made a trip to Manchester, which I will talk about later, and also set yet another world record which involved the Irish community’s favourite drink, Guinness!

Ibelieve that by the time you read this I will have set a new world record for riding a motorcycle up a vertical step – a Guinness world record. A special adjustable step was constructed and I would ride the Repsol Honda up it onto the top. It was far more daunting than it actually looked, but at my first attempt to reach 3.3 metres I crashed back down.

I recently strained a knee ligament and so I was riding with an Alpinestars knee brace on my left knee — which was just as well as on film the crash impact looks quite hard but the brace did its job. I am not a huge fan of protection but if you need support for your knees I can certainly recommend the Alpinestars one I was using!

On my second attempt I crested the rise at the top and the crowd went wild!

I then made my first trip to Manchester for the City Trial with Adam and Jeroni. We rode an event in Spain on the Friday evening and then jetted into Manchester on the Saturday morning, where Dougie Lampkin’s cousin, James, picked us up and transported us to the event.

The sensation of riding in front of so many people in a city centre was an incredible experience and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my UK fans for your support, it was very much appreciated.

It was then the Montesa day in Spain, where all the friends of the Montesa brand meet for a trials party. I had a fantastic day with the team and it’s so good to see friends and machines, old and new. One thing is for sure, they certainly enjoyed my demonstration as I got a little carried away, getting quite excited with such loud applause!

Before I close my Trial Magazine column for 2014 I would like to thank everyone for making 2014 the year that it was – a record breaking one. See you all in 2015 at Sheffield, which is round one of the X-Trial World Championship.

Until Next Time, have a very merry Christmas – Ride On! Toni.