Practice before SGP in Gothenburg
What a busy day for AJ! Fridays before SGP tournaments mostly mean official practice sessions. But not here in Gothenburg! Today Andreas got up at 7 am and took part in many meetings promoting tomorrow's Grand Prix of Sweden.In the morning AJ was a guest in a breakfast program of the Swedish channel MTG TV. Andreas was talking about speedway (not every viewer is a speedway fan, obviously) and his personal approach to sport. After taking part in the tv show, AJ gave an interview to "GT", the biggest local newspaper. When a long conversation came to an end, Andreas showed off during a photo session doing wheelies on one of the reporter's bicycle!
The next point of today's events was a shopping centre where a SGP promo stand was located. Speedway fans could check their reflexes playing a speedway gate simulator. What's more, they could even compare themselves with AJ! However, Andreas didn't give much chance winning the competition and gating in an incredible time 0.03 and 0.08 second! (Normally 0.3 second is considered as good reflexes at the gate...)
Talking with fans, signing autographs and taking pictures could take hours but at 12.30 Andreas had to show up at the press conference organised for the local media at the Ullevi Stadium. After the conference AJ had finally got time to put on his kevlar and take part in the official practice.
It's been a long day but I feel great. I like meeting the fans and it never means any extra pressure for me. Actually, it motivates me before upcoming tournaments or matches even more! The practice went fine today. My aim for tomorrow is qualifying for the semifinal and then we will see. Obviously everyone wants to win so it won't be easy. I would like to catch up some points I missed in Leszno two weeks ago. My bikes were working well there but I hadn't had enough rides before then and we couldn't for the proper set-up either... So hopefully it should be better this time, I think we learned something in Leszno and won't make the same mistake.
After the practice Andreas gave another long interview - this time for a television cooperating with IMG. What a day!
We are all looking up at the sky because the forecasts are not too optimistic. However, earlier they were saying it was 95% of chance it would be raining tomorrow night but not it's getting better and better so I guess we can only keep our fingers crossed it will fine tomorrow.
