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Photo - Michael Robinson.
When Michael last wrote to us from Sweden in the small town of Tibro (population of 10,000 the size of Feilding near Palmerston North, New Zealand) he was preparing for his first white Christmas with a trip to Norway with his host family, the Blikstad’s.
"My Christmas in Norway was a great opportunity to see more of Scandanavia and experience my first Christmas knee deep in snow. We were up in the mountains in the Blikstad’s holiday cottage. There was around a half a metre or more of untouched snow. The scenery was amazing and it was extremely cold with temperatures around -20 degrees - at one stage it was -28. It hurt to breath as my nostrils froze. But it was a real nice relaxing break. I even got to see Michael Schumacher ’s house in Norway - it was BIG!!"
While Michael spent Christmas in freezing temperatures in Norway with views of snowy mountains – an experience of a life time - on the other side of the world Michael’s family and friends in New Zealand celebrated a Christmas in the sun (well, if we were lucky enough to find a sunny spot!).
On his return to Sweden, Michael had two weeks to prepare before school restarted after the short Christmas break. He used this time to get on top of his training.
"Over the holiday I spent every day running over 10km. I have been pushing myself to run fast and hard to raise my fitness to the next level. My fitness has already made a huge jump allowing me to run 10kms in around 38-40 minutes, which is good considering it is a lot harder here with the cold weather. Before I left I was running 10km in around 48 minutes, so I am really pleased with the improvement."
School has now restarted for Michael. While most people would sigh at the thought of returning to school after only three weeks, Michael is excited with anticipation to see what the coming month and new year will bring.
"We have started school again and have been back into hard training. Over the weekend I had my first ride after 9-11 weeks stand down because of the weather conditions. It was real good to be back on the bike and I was surprised to find that I hadn’t lost too much speed. The track was not icy, but it was cold solid so had spike tires to get traction through the frozen DIRT!"
One highlight of the new year for Michael is a trip to MX Heaven, California USA – a motocross camp. He leaves on the 12th March for 3 weeks with the other 16 Swedish MX students from his school. It sounds an awesome camp with bikes, accommodation, meals and transportation provided. Michael’ highlight will be to ride Glen Helen race way. During their 3 week stay they will get to ride a variety of tracks and the likelihood of training with some of the American Pros like Bubba etc. are highly probable. As the owner of the camp is an old friend and neighbour of Jeremy Mc (THE KING OF SUPERX), they might even get the opportunity to meet him – he lives just 1km from the camp.
"I think this is the biggest opportunity any motocrosser could wish for to be in Europe, but also get the opportunity to race and train on AMA tracks in the States and meet people who I have always looked up to and watched on TV since I was in nappies. (This was a dream that JNP and I would often talk of). One thing leads to another and I am going to make the most of every opportunity, as an experience in motocross, but most of all "Life".
As the 2004 season closed and new opportunities open for 2005, Michael made special mentioned of those who have helped him on his way:
"I would like to thank everyone for their support over the last year, especially for believing in me to help make my dreams come true. It is hard to thank everyone, but just a few people that come to mind are the Manawatu-Orion Motorcycle Club for their support since I started racing in Minis; Shane and Tania Neilson-Phillips – special thanks for their support and care throughout basically my whole life – you are like a family to me; Phil Turnbull for all your help and wisdom throughout all the years, Sovereign Insurance for giving me the biggest opportunity to follow my dream, Ian from Sportspro for the support over the last two and half years with FOX race gear and SCOTT eyewear and last, but not least a big thank you goes to my family Bob, Gail, James and Rebecca – you have all been there for me and supported me through my life - words can’t say how much you mean to me. To everyone else: sponsors, supporters, family and friends thank you for your help and encouragement during the past year and I look forward to a successful 2005.
Thanks again, Mike"
SPECIAL MESSAGE TO:
WOODVILLE GRAND PRIX MXERS
Good luck to all – I will be thinking of you – the first Woodville I have missed since aged 4! Looking forward to seeing the results on Silver-Bullet.
Michael Robinson
C/ Tove & Jan Blikstad
Junigatan 5
S SH330 TIBRO
Sweden
