Team New Zealand arrived in Latvia a few days ago and have been busy getting prepared for the biggest motocross of the year, the 68th annual Motocross of Nations at Kegums.

New Zealand’s MX1 class rider, Dargaville’s Hamish Dobbyn, and his crew report in:

“After an easy couple of days we have had really good time to adjust to the time zone, climate, food and atmosphere. Bit cooler than back home (crisp air) but fantastic atmosphere and great place to be in.

“Flights over were long but fine. Auckland – Thailand 12 hours, Thailand – Frankfurt 12 hours and Frankfurt – Latvia 2 hours. Took a little while with a one night stop-over in Thailand but we got here with no problems.

“We packaged up my suspension in a carry case and sent it as normal luggage and had no problems at all getting it over here, our luggage was last seen in Auckland and we collected it all when we landed in Latvia, so that was great.

“We arrived into Latvia early Sunday morning. Checked into our hotel for the week, being a nice place everyone was pretty happy. It’s a cool, old building! First couple of days we spent getting familiar with the area and settling into things. Although we have a hired van for getting to the track and around the area, we have also been hiring bicycles to get us through the city each day, cheap and easy form of transport. Has been the best way to see everything.

“Buildings are beautiful and we are thoroughly enjoying the ‘Old Riga’ where the old cobble stone streets are closed to vehicles but open to foot and bicycle traffic. Sunday we had great weather – dry and sunny but chilled air with winter moving in.

“Monday we had rain so we decided to jump into the van and take a small drive up to Parnu in Estonia (next country North of Latvia) to check out the old town. We had lunch in a local Estonian bar/pub – was a good drive and fun way to spend the afternoon seeing a little more of Europe.

“In regards to training, we used the first few days as gym days, so the blood got some good workouts but plenty of rest as well.”

On Tuesday, the KTM bikes and mechanic arrived (Bodo Schmidt Racing). Dobbyn (MX1) and MX2 rider Hamish Harwood were both eager to open it up and peep at their bikes.

The following day they had their first ride on the bikes at a private track near Kegums.

Both riders had some good time on the bikes and got to cut a few laps (on a track that was sandy and loamy, similar to the Tokoroa track).

They are rapt with what they have been provided with.

Dobbyn has a brand new 2015 KTM450 and Harwood a 2015 KTM250F that has been ‘worked’ and only used for a small number of hours.

Harwood was rapt to know he wouldn’t be racing on a stock standard bike.

The mechanic speaks little English but “he has been great – mixing some English up and communicating with hand signals and eye contact has been fine so far”.

Team manager Dave Craig, from Wanaka, has been hard at the work of juggling things so frantically in such a small amount of time, but, according to the riders, his work has paid off.

Queenstown’s Scott Columb (the NZ MX3/Open class rider) is soon to see his bike and helpers, so he is looking forward to that. He is riding under YZF450, Rinaldi Yamaha. He too should have a great set up.

On Friday (Saturday NZ time), the team will head back out to the track for technical control (noise testing, etc) and then it is into practice and qualifying on Saturday and racing on Sunday.