Dan’s Blog – Looking back on the Assen weekend

On Friday we had two free practice sessions, and as I had already been to Assen this meant I could focus more on my riding. FP1 was dry, the track conditions were good which meant it was a positive session, ending in P13.

FP2 was dry once again, after a positive FP1 I felt confident going into the session. We had made one change for FP2 as I felt the problem in FP1 held me back a lot. During FP2 i stayed with a big group and improved my time by a couple of seconds, ending the session in P9. By far my best result of this season!

Going in to qualifying I felt confident we could come out with a good result, but as we were heading out for qualifying it started to rain. This meant the conditions were mixed, we were on slicks but on a greasy track. I didn’t want to crash as I knew we had 3 weekends on the bounce, therefore I wanted to stay fit. I ended the session in P15 – and I had matched my time from FP2 in worst conditions, so I knew I had a lot more pace for the race.

Heading in to the first race I knew I could stick with the front group, I managed to do this for 14 laps. With two laps to go, another rider passed me, he didn’t have the pace to stick with the front group so therefore we dropped off. I managed to get back passed but there was a gap, I worked hard on trying to close the gap, which used my tyres. On the final lap he came back passed which meant I finished the race in P13.

For race 2 my target was to stick on the back of the front group for the entire race. As we waited in pit lane it started to rain, the race was declared a wet race. We were on wets on a drying track, my initial start was awful. I came across the line on lap one in 16th, I worked so hard on catching the front group. I managed to do so, but with this meant I had used all my tyre. It started to rain with 2 laps to go, I couldn’t push because I had no tyre life left. I crossed the line in P10. By far my best result this season!

All weekend my Dad and my chief mechanic, Dani, had worked so hard for me. Also the two rider coaches who helped my improve my riding all weekend, and Santi the suspension technician who did a great job of finding me a bike I liked – so that we only made one change all weekend. I really enjoyed the whole Assen weekend, I feel confident that I can keep on improving and hopefully get some better results in the closing stages of the season.

For next round I am going to keep on improving, I will go through with the rider coaches where I can improve and I’ll work on improve that area.