Jun
26
Hello everyone, June was supposed to be a month off from the WRC calendar but it’s been a crazy few weeks for me and it hasn’t felt like any form of break!
Myself, Scott [Martin, co-driver] and Barry [fitness trainer] went to Corsica the week after we got back from Rally de Portugal to complete the Tour de Corse cycle challenge in aid of The RPJ Crohn’s Foundation. Considering there was a group of us doing a 1000km bike ride, I was really surprised at how smoothly everything went – we didn’t get any punctures or encounter any major problems for the entire week. Scott did a good job of sorting out our schedule before we left but we didn’t always stick to it and when we were having a good day, we really pushed ourselves. On the final day we only had 100km left to reach the end and that’s when the adrenaline kicked in! It was mostly downhill at that stage so we just bombed it to end and finished well ahead of schedule. It was such a good feeling to finally make it to the finish.
There was one epic day where we did 171 kms round the Corsica coast – the weather was perfect and the scenery was unbelievable. A real low point was about half way through when we had to do a 34km climb up to 1477 metres – it was such hard work and a real test of our endurance. It was also very hot whilst we were cycling – it never fell below 33 degrees Celsius – but on one afternoon we had a bit of rain which felt amazing after the intense heat. I caught a cold on the final weekend which made the last two days cycling very hard going. Despite this, I really enjoyed the whole experience and it was so satisfying to get to the end of the 1000km and raise money for such a good cause. Since we’ve been back, we’ve also been doing some extra fundraising through eBay and we’ve even sold one of my old race suits. I’m currently selling my signed t-shirt from the Tour de Corse (don’t worry, it’s been washed!) and some various signed merchandise from M-Sport including a signed book from Valentino Rossi. You can view what’s all up for sale here – Tour de Corse charity auction.
After all that I did manage to escape to the south of France for a few days holiday, but now I’m back to work and preparing for Rally Bulgaria next week. This is the first time there has been a WRC round there so I’m intrigued as to what it’ll be like. It’s good in the sense that the stages will be new to everyone so no driver will hold any clear advantage over another in terms of knowing the roads better. It’s also going to be the first all tarmac round of the season and I think this is bound to throw up a few surprises along the way. Looking forward to getting stuck into it and I’ll update you on what Bulgaria is like when I get there.
MW
You can follow live updates from Matthew on Twitter via www.twitter.com/StobartWRC or become a fan of the official Stobart M-Sport Ford Facebook page – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stobart-M-Sport-Ford-Rally-Team/10150137030195403?ref=ts
