It finally happened, I got talked into going to Liege with the MPMC to compete in the Liege Rally in Belgium by Dan Thomas. He assured me that the course would be fine on my old CBR 900 Fireblade, even though he was going to compete on a KTM 590 enduro.

So before I knew it the last week in May was here and I was heading down to Dover in a minibus with the Fireblade in the back of a Luton van. After a ferry trip and a short road trip, we arrived at an old large Farm House that would be our base for the next week.

The next day we went to collect the course road books and the weather was heavy rain so we decided to do a couple of laps of the course in the mini bus. Well, once we worked out the course, the three Special Stages did not seem too suited to a road bike. Very narrow lanes with barbed wire fences each side, mud and gravel tracks in some parts through forest. I thought, this is not ideal for a fireblade, a supermoto is definitely the bike you need to be competitive on.

The next day was dry so it was out early to learn the route on the bikes, but Dan would be unable to ride today as his ear infection was playing havoc with his balance. He kindly offered me his KTM enduro for the day and this was much more forgiving than the Fireblade. The hardest part for me during practice seemed to be working out the course route. Often I was going straight on etc but gradually I started to have a vague idea of where to go. This course was very narrow in places with a run off into a field, but only once you’ve gone through a barbed wire fence. It made the Isle of Man TT seem relatively safe in comparison!

After a few days of trying to learn the course and plenty of beers and good food in the evenings, race day came. I would ride the KTM as Dan's ear infection had ruled him out of the race. As I lined up for the start I was determined to put in a good first stage, but after about five bends I realised that I had not learnt the course well enough. I went into one bend at about sixty to discover it was a hairpin, I followed the skid marks of a rally car into the field and slid down. I immediately thought, this is going to be embarrassing if I don't get the bike going again. I lifted the bike up, it was undamaged apart from mud everywhere and I saw one of the French riders go past as I rejoined the track. This was not my last excursion as I went straight on at two junctions and had to do u-turns, my first stage had been a steep learning curve.

By the next stage I had decided to calm down, at this rate I would not finish. I got into a better rhythm with no big mistakes and, as the day went on, started to enjoy myself, pulling wheelies for spectators. Later on as the day progressed you would see bikes parked up around the course, including some of the Met boys. Rob who was riding a RSV Aprilia had gone into the woods after a slide.

I was now feeling back on track with the course when I refuelled between stages then turned the wrong way out of the fuel station! This meant I got lost between stages and by the time I found my way back on course I arrived 20 minutes late giving me a time penalty.

The British where doing well in the team event and I was asked not to crash anymore. Every second would count at the end, but I had one more crash in me so I shot off into the woods for a quick dismount and rejoined again and completed my first rally event.

I must thank Dan for having an ear infection and lending me his KTM as I fear I would not have completed the rally otherwise. My Fireblade would not have been as bullet proof as his KTM was. That said, several riders did complete the course on road bikes including Chris Rigg and Stuart Hinks, so don't be put off.

This trip was a good laugh with the adrenalin rush of a mad course and you even get a trophy for just finishing the course!