POSITIVE
THOUGHTS
18.04.24 PHIL ATWILL voice note (Vaguely edited)
Large and in charge. Yeah. Go on then. Take note of this one. How are we doing?
Update, Nikos, my mechanic and Mal spent last week prepping everything. Nikos did a lot…well we all did a lot of work.
We actually bought a fish van, an old fish van from France, ripped it out, cleaned it out, sanded it off, repainted some of the bits in the inside, plyboarded it, put a little bench in there, put the stickers on it, happy days, looking fairly smart, quite stoked.
And then yeah, Nikos and Mal set off driving from Morzine to Fort William, Nikos is my mechanic this year. When he got to Germany they noticed his passport had expired in February so they tried to blag it through the border at Amsterdam to get on the boat.
That did not happen.
Nikos then had to return to Amsterdam, spend the night there and had to fly back to Geneva as he tries to recover his passport.
So I’ve had to find another mechanic. Luckily Chris Gann has stepped in for this weekend, assuming he turns up, he’s not turned up yet.
And then, yeah, everything else fairly smooth. We’ve booked a real fancy gaff. Mal booked a real fancy gaff but the water is shit.
So we’ve barely had showers for two days and then it completely shit itself last night. So I had to drive off at like 10:30 to get drinking water for everyone.
And then now all in all, everything’s worked out pretty sick. Like the new helmets, the new jerseys kit, the new bikes, everything looks sexy, so stoked.
Props to Kat for sorting all of that out. Yeah, she’s definitely put her artistic touch on the team this year, which is pretty cool. Yeah, hell of a chick, that one. Pretty stoked I got a ring on it.
What else to report?
Yeah, so pits is bigger, everything’s sexier. A mechanic down, got replacement on the way, water’s fixed.
Oh yeah, the plumbers though, plumbers came in this morning to fix the water and they’ve fucking nicked our plastic tub from our new Quencher camping kit.
You hear that babe? What? Yeah, they nicked the plastic washing up bowl, the bastards.
Gaëtan is downstairs chopping onions.
The track walk today was good. They’ve actually made it a lot shorter, smoother and easier, which looks nice. Obviously, less arm pump, but it’s definitely going to be tight racing.
But yeah, generally quite excited. I’ve got a stiffer suspension tune on the bike this year thanks to Ohlin’s testing.
Got that Misspent Summers sticker on the down tube, making it pretty fast.
All is good. Hope that helps.
It’s also Mal’s birthday today. We bought him a Barbie card and got everyone to sign it, which is quite nice. And he’s been walking around with it. It’s my birthday pink thing strapped to his chest.
We bought him a keg of beer and Mal’s a legend who’s been grafting so hard. It’s actually been ridiculous.
Yeah, I think that’s it.
We’ve got a rental car and we’ve got half a km driveway from the tarmac to our house and it’s like a fucking rally stage. So I’ve been shitting the boys up back to and forth the tarmac road, which has been quite fun.
Right. Lots of love. Bye.
20.04.24 PHIL ATWILL voice note (Vaguely edited)
Side note here, plumbers didn’t nick the plastic tub. I found it. It was in the sink. Where else would you leave a washing up tub.
And yeah, done first practice this morning. Dusty, quite loose at the top. Woods is fun. Not much to report the guys here.
It is such a pain in the ass to get into the actual paddock. I had a matey telling me to go drop off.
And I was like, look, I’m going down there to drop off the guys.
And he was like, no, no. As he said no, I just drove.
Luckily I didn’t drive over his foot. He yelled at me quite loud. I was a bit worried I might have run over his foot, but I didn’t.
And then we got to the paddock and then there was lots of angry marshals, some of them telling us, yo come in, the others like, fucking stop.
And then they were filming us. I’d done something illegal and they were complaining, cause I’d nearly run over someone.
But anyway, we got into the pits today, went practicing, Gaëtan crashed. He’s alright because he’s Hulk.
Now we’re eating lunch and assessing that voice note.
And yes, you can post it on the internet if you’d like.
22.04.24 PHIL ATWILL voice note (Vaguely edited)
Oh, large. Yeah, probably don’t post this on the internet, but here’s an update for you.
Yeah, obviously rough week, I got a flat tire. Gatan got a mechanical.
Marco was back on a bike, which was nice, he did well considering. That was his first ride back from a broken hand, he missed qualifying, but he was professional all week and yeah, that was really nice to see.
Meanwhile, we are at Edinburgh airport. Mal is trying to make the boat to Newcastle, he had to fucking drop some shit off with Ben Siri. So he’s now going to miss the boat back, which is not ideal.
And yeah, then we’re off to Morzine to check into our place that we’ve rented for the summer.
When’s Finale? What’s in Finale? No, we’re probably not coming to Finale. Soc’s going to be in Finale though, for the… isn’t it the enduro race? What more to say? What more to say?
