The old saying goes that “He who is well prepared has half won the battle,” an adage that two thirds of Team New Zealand would rather not hear at the moment!
Fresh off the back of the 40 degree Glen Helen GP last weekend, honorary Brit Ben Townley and team-mate Cody Cooper leapt straight onto a plane at LAX and flew into the UK yesterday afternoon…. unfortunately the same couldn’t be said for half of their luggage which missed the flight!
Okay, you might think. How bad can that be? Well quite bad actually, as the luggage in question contained Cooper’s race kit, forks, shocks, pegs, clamps, bars, grips and levers.
BT faired slightly better as he managed to only have his forks left behind…oh and the nitrogen from his rear shocks that had to be drained, rendering them useless, before he could carry them on the plane!
With Buildbase Honda supplying bikes and mechanics for the team, but with the team riders only having two full sets of graphics each, resources were thin on the ground for the boys as they rocked up at Little Silver for a little shakedown this morning.
With the race bikes running Kristian Whatley and Gert Krestinov’s old graphics and Cody Cooper running a onesie with borrowed boots and knee braces the morning had a slightly surreal feeling to it but it was good to see them tearing it up for a while.
The morning was cut short as both riders were jet lagged to the max but it was a pleasure to see Ben Townley on a bike again and I for one will be rooting for Ben, Cody and Kayne to come home in second behind Team GB!
