Racing News |
LANCE RUSSELL JUMPS INTO ACTION
It’s always challenging to ride in a lockdown. Let’s see how Kawasaki’s Lance Russell is dealing with it as a travelling Sydneysider.
BUNDABERG, QLD
To wrap up his last stop of the Freestyle Kings Live Tour, Lance was training in Bundaberg, Queensland with word champion Clinton Moore.
“I love staying in Bundaberg, Clinton is so accommodating and he gives me great advice. His compound is world class and it gives me a reality check when I ride with him, he’s an extremely talented rider”.
Lance had the opportunity to perfect the 360 Superman while he was there too! “You have to be conditioned to jumping in the foam pit. Every landing can feel like hitting a brick wall. I managed to get a bit of time to work on the 360 Superman and started to feel really comfortable doing it. I got some awesome drone shots too!”
MACKAY, QLD
Next stop was Mackay, QLD which would be the last event until the national tour kicked off again in September.
The lead up to the event was busy, with a big media day followed by a course direction change. “The wind got really bad, so we spun the course which let us have a tail wind. The bike is much easier to control in a tail wind”.
The crowd of over 2,500 rolled in which was awesome to see during a new COVID19 era. At this stage there were only a small number of cases in Sydney, and QLD was completely open!
“The show started flawlessly, everyone was excited and riding really well. I had a body camera rolling the whole time and got some amazing shots! The Kawasaki’s bright green was standing out so well against the night sky”.
“While wrapping up the show I ended up sliding out on the landing. It was the smallest fall I’d ever have but somehow as I stood up I felt like my foot wasn’t right” describes Lance.
“So I played it safe and sat out the last segment of the show. With that awesome show all wrapped up it was time to head back to Sydney!”
DAY SURGERY
A week after Lance arrived home, and walking on his sore foot this whole time, he thought he would get an X-ray. “Turns out I cracked the navicular in my foot! They always say injuries happen on the small stuff which turned out to be true”.
At this stage, Sydney had just started to see signs that it would head into lockdown. “I thought if we were heading into lockdown, it’s probably a great time to get my foot plated to avoid any healing complications, with a weight bearing bone being so vital to riding I didn’t want to take the risk. I went in for a flawless surgery, and I’ve already healed”. Lance has fully recovered from his surgery and now focusses on the tour ahead.
SEPTEMBER
Since the east coast of Australia has gone into lockdown, the tour scheduled for September to December 2021 has been postponed to March 2022. “Since events have been postponed we are excited to announce our new video series RYLAND.TV will be launching on October 1st 2021”.
This series will focus on Lance’s Sydney home compound, featuring all the fun, training, bike tech tips and stunt riding antics. “The stage is set for RY LAND, so much hard work has gone into creating it. I can’t wait to show everyone what we’ve been up to. There is still so much to enjoy in 2021”.
Expect to see an exclusive sneak peek into RY LAND TV two weeks before launch, only at Kawasaki.com.au!
