It’s been a top week here at Foremost Media headquarters, one of the more manageable ones we’ve had since all the way back in February. And it’s weeks like these that we can assess where we’re at, what the plan is moving forward and work through all kinds of tedious tasks behind the scenes.

And it’s just as well we’ve done such a process this week and will continue into next, because by next weekend we’re on the road for three massive weekends – firstly the MX Nationals rounds in South Australian and Western Australia and then onto Australian Superbike (for CycleOnline.com.au) also in WA.

The next three weekends will set the tone for the remainder of the season as we move toward the halfway mark of the year, not just for us, but for racers, teams, series organisers and the industry alike. It’s kind of like stage one is out of the way and the run home is always important.

And while Spence will speak more specifically about racing below, it’s also coming into new bike season. Already we’ve seen the 2017 Husqvarna range unveiled and next week will be the KTMs. On top of that, off-road tester Guy Streeter is heading to Europe on Monday to test the new EXC range (yet to be unveiled!).

It’s a great time of the year, even if it feels as though bike launches are becoming sooner by the season, and we’re primed to tackle it all head-on. That’s what it’s all about and thankfully with more resources than ever, we’re beginning to step up another level once again – even if it isn’t straightforward. Here’s Adam Spence…

Domestically it has been somewhat a quiet week in the sport, with Motul MX Nationals contenders off putting in the motos during the short break before Murray Bridge, there’s not a whole lot to report on. Obviously for us that doesn’t mean we’re sitting around doing nothing, we’re always on the search for unique content and interesting stories for our viewers.

This week we put together a range of content from news stories to videos, called around to riders such as Lawson Bopping to see how they were coming along and reported on the regular international news filtering through each day. Overall it was still quite a solid week of quality content and to cap it off the announcement came through that Chad Reed would be back for the 2016 AUS-X Open. Awesome!

Here at MotoOnline.com.au we’re huge fans of the AUS-X Open event by the team at AME Management, it truly is a world-class show. Last year’s inaugural running of the event inside Allphones Arena was something we’ve never witnessed before in Australia. International riders, including The GOAT Ricky Carmichael, a top level freestyle motocross show and packed stands, it had it all.

Not only did the event have it all, but the AME Management team catered to us media guys very well, which allowed us to really make the most of the event and create a tonne of content. We’re super-excited to get to this year’s event in November to go even bigger in terms of MotoOnline content and we’re sure the team behind the event will be doing the same.

As I mentioned, I spoke with DPH Motorsport’s Lawson Bopping this week and unfortunately he is dealing with fatigue issues that according to him were only allowing him to ride at 50 percent. The regular MX1 front-runner said he felt okay for a few laps before he would hit a wall and it was all over. It’s unfortunate for Bopping who had such an awesome pre-season in America racing their supercross series.

That decision to race the first six rounds of the US supercross series though is something that will work in favour now. If Bopping had chosen to go through a regular pre-season here in Australia and then bow out of the motocross series three rounds in, that would not be good for his 2017 campaign. Luckily though he’s shown he is at his best currently and if he can work out the fatigue issue he’ll definitely be right up there at the pointy end of the field.

Domestically everything else is pretty quiet, Jacob Wright is down in Victoria currently pounding out the laps aboard Bopping’s Yamaha YZ450F in preparation for Murray Bridge’s round four. The rest of the riders such as Jay Wilson, Caleb Ward, Wilson Todd, Dean Ferris, they’re all finding softer tracks and laying down motos in preparation for the next two events. Who else is ready for more racing action? We sure are!

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