Sheffield Tigers: Hard work paying off for Broc Nicol

The American ace has been tweaking his equipment and reckons he’s almost found the perfect build.

After a couple of encouraging guest bookings to get extra laps in, Nicol is now ready to deliver his true form in Sunday’s big clash with Somerset at Owlerton (5.30).

“I’m starting to feel more and more comfortable on the bike all the time and it’s building my confidence which is helping me win more races,” Nicol said.

“We’ve been putting a lot of time in behind the scenes making small adjustments to the bike to get us to the point where everything just clicks – and I feel like that’s more-or-less come around now.

“I’m so happy things have turned around for the better and I’m feeling a lot happier with everything – but there’s still more to come yet.”

Nicol is the latest rider to predict another tough battle on Sunday but is looking to take momentum from what he says was a positive display in last weekend’s Championship Fours tournament where Tigers finished runners-up.

“Obviously it was a bit of a bummer missing out on the win after leading the Final towards the end, but we were pretty pleased overall with our performance as a team,” Nicol said.

“For me it was great to get a couple of bonus rides too; I felt good in the two rides I had in the Final where I scored four points and to finish off with a race win against some strong opposition was another step in the right direction.

“Hopefully I can now take that into our home meeting this Sunday – but it’s not going to be easy.

“We know how strong Somerset are from last weekend when they beat us to the Fours title at Peterborough.

“I think it could be another close one and one thing’s for sure, everyone needs to bring their A-game that we know we’re all capable of if we want to get another win on the board.”