#throwback
This is going to be a regular feature, where we wheel out one of the Free
of the great events we’ve had the privilege to witness down the years. F
Motocross of Nations…
I
T’S NO SECRET TO anybody who knows us
that we love the Motocross of Nations - it’s our
annual pilgrimage to the holy grail of MX – the
atmosphere alone makes it worth the trip! It’s a
mad weekend unlike any other race, with crazy
fans making non-stop noise for 48 hours. We’re
talking noise levels a football crowd would
only be able to maintain for 90 minutes or so.
Needless to say the camp site at night time is like a scene
from Mad Max. The best bit for me is catching up with old
friends, staying up to date with industry gossip (it’s still the
best place to find out who’s riding where next year) and
enjoying the familiar buzz I had when we first started this
crazy journey that is FreestyleXtreme.
But going back to 2009, work was busy enough for me to
lose interest in photography and MX racing and I no longer
had the time to do the things that had previously inspired and
motivated me to set up FreestyleXtreme.com. But a chance
meeting resulted in an invite to hang out with Alpinestars in
their hospitality at the MXoN in Franciacorta, Italy. It was a
spur of the moment thing really; I wanted to see if I would still
enjoy taking photos and if nothing else I was hoping I’d be
able to get some good snaps for our Facebook page.
I left the logistics to Jeff and (camera in tow) we jumped on
the flight. An hour or so of hire-car driving later we rocked
up to the most beautiful setting overlooking a lake (the
kind of place you’d propose to someone). We got to our
hotel (“Hotel Romantica”) and were greeted by a confused
receptionist whose English was only slightly better than our
Italian. He checked us in and gave us an extensive tour,
including the best places to watch the sunset and routes
for late-night strolls. The tour ended at our room where we
found out why the concierge was acting a bit strange. The
room was nice: mini bar, tidy bathroom and one solitary
double bed. After a swift double take we tried to explain that
Jeff wasn’t my sugar daddy and we’d asked for a twin, not a
double. The hotel was fully booked so a swap of room was
out of the question - it was only the late discovery of a camp
bed that saved me sleeping top-and-tail with an only-sleepsin-the-nude Jeff.
Saturday didn’t start much more smoothly - we were
pumped for the event but our tickets were nowhere to
be seen. After half an hour of phone calls it was only a
distracted security guard that allowed us to get in. We
stopped by Alpinestars to chat business for a few hours