Valencia MotoGP

So I'm back (not that you know who I am) from the GP in Valencia. Thanks
to Klaatu for advice given many moons ago.

A top all round trip. The 125 race was awesome. The 250 was fun, and
probably the favourite for the locals with strong Spanish riders. The GP
class was OK, with most of the fun being at the back.

Randy Mamola on the twin seat Duc wheelied the main straight, did a
rolling stoppy to pick up his passenger, wheelied off the line, cornered
quickly, but kept adjusting to the pillion shitting themselves, and then
did a stoppy to complete their lap. Nice one.

The weather was hot for us, but cold for the locals. The traffic wasn't
*too* bad. The Guardia Civil were friendly unless you tried a track
invasion. The fireworks were LOUD. And the spectators, as predicted are
simply nuts. They cheered when a trailer dropped a metal ramp. They
jeered at the section of crowd that failed to continue a mexican wave.
They cheered at a marshall that was dancing down the service road. They
cheered an inflatable that started collapsing. They basically had a great
time. And so did we.

- Dave.

 

Heh !

Were they all stuffing themselves with Ham ?

 

Yes they were. I didn't notice the stall in the car park, so my first
encounter was on Saturday when a big crowd of them all wearing the same t-
shirts (over the top of the fleece jumpers and jackets) walked in, one
bloke had a leg of meat stuck over his shoulder, and another had a great
big box of baguettes.

Funny thing was, that everyone was being searched for beer etc, plus
incendiary devices and anything that could incite violence. This lot sit
down and pull out a 12" carving knife!

Later on walking out I see a stall with 100 odd legs of big dead things
hanging from spikes. Right tasty too.

 

Yep Typical Spaniards

Now tell us about the bogs.. Actually Maybe not.

Top place for actually viewing a race from anywhere on the stands
though, is it not?.

You went by bike ? Did you stay around Valencia ?

 

Actually they were fine... at least the ones along the back of the rear
grandstand. Just like any normal public bog anywhere else really. Mind
you, I only needed to pee. Apparently the ladies was just a hole in the
ground (still?)

Cracking view. We managed to check out a number of viewing positions over
the 2 days, but any of them would be great.

Took the Boeing actually. I'm not sure I'd like to ride around Valencian
rush hour traffic. It was bad enough in a car... still I only had one
scrape, 2 horn transmissions, and 1 horn receipt.

Yeah, stayed in the city, good vibe to the place. Very noisy on Saturday
night, especially with bikes at the traffic lights bouncing off the
limiter. The local police just ignore them, as long as they moved along
when the lights went green.

 

I quite fancy hiring a bike overthere and going to the next GP:
I must see Rossi race , English race tracks just don't
do it for me these days.

They can be a liitle aggresive on the road :O)

'Spose it's a long way to go just for the race weekend.

Something to do with fusball perhaps ? Not that I follow it anyway.

 

That would be fun.

I was hoping to see Rossi spinning the back end, but he had his hands
full until the end... and the only one I saw on the TV afterwards was on
a corner that was too far away to notice little slides like that

Yeah... you just gotta match them like for like... although come to
think of it, that's how I ended up bashing mirrors.

Pah.

Think I might try Jerez next year.

No idea. I thought the police were pretty chilled out actually. Asides
from pouncing on one guy who decided to run across the track (well after
the track was clear mind), they didn't do much about anything. Probably
trying to stay warm in the 20C sunshine.

 

How far would it be - say going from Santander ?

 

689 miles according to Autoroute.

 

Might be cold at the beginning of the year... perhaps better to do the
Catalan GP nr Barcelona in mid May/June/whenever it is. Nice and toasty
then.

 

Perfect days blat then.

 

But this is Spain and it's never *that* cold. Think of the greater
efficiency of you engine.

 

Good point. Uh, what about your ride down to Plymouth?[1]


[1] Not that I have any idea of where you are.

 

It's only pain

SW London.