After the inauspicious start to 2024, my dreams of repeating as AFM Lightweight Superbike champion may have been over before they began, but they were not the only dreams or plans I had for the year. In fact, even before the breaking of my dreams and collarbone, I had made my vacation plans and put my money down to head to Italy with Leod Escapes to ride the greatest race track in all the land – Mugello.

The first step was getting physically healed. Opting to have a plate surgically installed on my collarbone put me in the best place to heal the bone quickly. By the time the July trip rolled around I was feeling plenty strong and ready to ride. I spent the last couple weeks of June making long test rides on my stock MT-07 to test my endurance and came away with shining colors. Check on physical health.

The next step to riding Mugello like a badass was mental confidence. I was full of confidence riding around the winding roads of the alps with the Leod Escapes gang, but confidence climbing on an S1000RR and going 180 MPH at Mugello was an entirely different proposition. I thought the confidence was there, but actually climbing on the bike and letting loose on the track betrayed my feelings. A Leod Escapes guide and YCRS instructor commented that I appeared to be riding “like a kicked dog” – never great. For sure one of the lessons I learned from the journey was the chasm between riding an 80 hp motorcycle and a 210 hp one is vast. Being fast on my little twin does not make me fast on a 1000cc superbike.

So Mugello was a learning event. Learning how to be comfortable on a race bike after my injury. Learning some different approaches to riding courtesy of Racing School Europe. Learning that if I even want to drop forty or fifty grand on one of these, I might have to learn to ride all over again. In any case, I also learned Mugello is fucking grand old time and I’ve got the pictures to remember it by.