Ticket booked way back in December, as soon as they came on sale - the reason for choosing Mugello is because it is a classic; for the racing itself and the great spectacle of the supporting cast of Italian fans. The idea then to take two weeks off work, with the race on Sunday 22 May 2016 being in the middle - 5 days to get there and 5 days to get back - with time to see a few places on the way and on the way back. The other idea is to take a tent and camping kit, the first time for me on the Blade - everything cut down in size and weight to fit into a single OXFORD 70 litre roll bag - check. Departure Day The ferry is just a two minute ride from where I live - even so it always seems to be a last minute rush to get there, and this time is no different. Luggage loaded, set, and join the queue of a few bikes waiting to load the Condor Ferry direct to St Malo. Not a very chatty lot this time. First night at Domain de Logis campsite, just off the main D137 St Malo to Rennes road. It is here, usually on the first night that you find out if you have left something behind or if you have made a bad choice of equipment. One year a tent was so shit I packed it up and threw it in the bin the next morning, as it leaked cold water through the floor. This time nothing so drastic - but I forgot to fill the pepper pot with pepper - and you have to have tinned Cassoulet (a bean and pork stew) with salt and pepper, along with French bread. So everything worked. It was a cold night down to 5 C according to the funky Casio watch. And the North Face Blue Kazoo sleeping bag was snug and warm. The Terra Nova Laser Comp tent produced lots of water condensation, but none of it got inside. The luggage system stayed on the bike OK, bike running OK. Good to go. On the Road The choice of route to get to Mugello in Italy is decided on the fly, because of the weather. There are broadly two main options - 1 - Head east across France to Vosges, and cross into Germany at Freiburg. Head south into Switzerland and then drop into northern Italy from there. 2 - Head south and east and cross directly into Italy somewhere south of Lyons. There was a horrible cold wind heading east, and the French weather forecast (Meteo) was good for the south of France, so chose option 2 and headed towards the spectacular Combe Laval and Ardeche region, broadly around Valence, south of Lyon. Time Out Ended up in St Nazaire-en-Royans on a Municipal campsite by the river, cheap as chips but had to suffer a Traveller (Irish Gypsy in a GB reg) and his barking dog. He was concerned that I had told the camp manager about it instead of speaking to him first. Anyway, I moved my tent and he moved his dog inside at night - no need for a knife fight or a bare knuckle fight over it and problem solved ! He was all right actually, I suspect he just liked his drink. Two lovely days riding around the winding roads in the area. Lovely and warm and sunny, but not the fierce heat of high summer. Combe Laval by 660 Mattie, on Flickr On the Road Again Looking at the map it was obvious that the road to Gap and then on to Briancon was the way to go. Not surprising there were lots of bikes along this lovely road. The weather was still good, but just about warm enough. it was still only about 15 C. Joined the Italian motorway system heading towards Turin and then down to Savona on the coast - tunnels and twisty roads - superb - but dark clouds around. Came off the motorway and thought there must be some Hotel action in Albisola - sure enough found the lovely Hotel S Giorgio within minutes - sorted. Woke to sunshine, but ominous clouds over the hills. The Hotel manager said the weather forecast was good. He was to be proved very wrong as the coming day' s weather was horrendous - the kind of weather that you disappear into and come out of the other side. Lots of bikes heading to Mugello caught up in the storms that lashed the area that we all had to pass through - strong winds - driving heavy rain - hail storm - thunder and and lightning right over head. A heavy day of slow progress into the weather, taking shelter in petrol stations, under bridges, and sometimes just pulling over and toughing it out in the open, when heavy hail came down. Cars did the same. Traffic at times reduced to 22 kph (except the Lorries !). A heavy day, but no other route. The somehow the water soaked my Toll Road ticket which was a hassle but resolved when explained in English - they lifted the barrier after paying about 26 Euros when I told them where I had come from that day. Arrived Frisole, north of Florence. Some fun with the Sat Nav being sensitive to big rain drops but not wet fingers in wet gloves - how I laughed ! Found a lovely little Hotel, wet and cold, and dreamed of hot showers and lovely food, just as all their lights went out, and their computer went dead - power cut - something had tripped their electrics, with some one trapped in the lift. They could not even book me into a room until the computer was up and running, so I had to wait another half hour for them to get the electrics on. Checked into the campsite the next day, and the sun came out - deep joy. The Gig Rode to the track to watch Friday practice, and rode to the gate. The rain had caused some trouble for the campers at the track, but everyone in good spirits. The track must be awesome to ride - sweeping lefts and rights - climbs - long straights - looking at it you think I would love to ride this - sweeping right up a climb - gorgeous - TV just does not do justice to this beautiful track. A big track to walk around, but lots of good positions to watch from. Big party atmosphere, bikes weaving in and out of people, with great skill - imagine riding through the crowd leaving a football match, on a Ducati, or a GS, or a scooter with your mate on the back carrying a table - give you some idea of what they were doing - no bother. Perhaps this was a Yamaha engine what you need by 660 Mattie, on Flickr Valentino qualified on Pole position at the last minute, with the help of Vinales, who took second on the grid - clever bit of work between them, the crowd went mad. Evryone left the day with the dream - Valentino on Pole Position for the race on Sunday. Race Day I thought I had a measure of the size of the event by watching Practice and Qualifying on the Saturday, then the size of the crowds, and the traffic, on the Sunday came as a bit of a shock ! - no riding up to the gate and parking - had to pay park in a field and do some walking - hot day. Watched the great racing, of Moto 2, from various vantage points along the way. Made it to my seat in Centrale Bronze in time for the main event. Great atmosphere with many in yellow VR46 shirts - Mum, Dad, and the kids all in the same shirts. Every time Vale passed the stand everyone was on their feet cheering - then bang went Valentino's Yamaha engine, with smoke pouring out of it and the crowd were silent as we watched on the big screen. We could see it was the end, and many many people left there and then - they just left and did not want to watch any more. The change of atmosphere was incredible, suddenly deflated. Credit to Marquez for making a fight out of the remainder of the race, and I actually wanted him yo win and beat Lorenzo. But even that was not to be. Traffic leaving the event was hot and slow. Better to switch the engine off and push at times. Everyone kept their cool, no horns or madness - everyone calm and orderly - must have taken 45 minutes to escape. Returning Home - French Strikes Big distance day leaving. Followed a GB reg CBR (in Repsol colours) and a ZZR, but they disappeared into the distance. Heavy rain and hail again, more thunderstorms but still good progress along the toll roads. Some heavy traffic but filtered it and caught up with the GB reg guys again. France, sunshine, lovely roads, Briancon, Gap, Nyons could go no further because of the French strike affecting fuel deliveries. out of petrol by 660 Mattie, on Flickr Saw this many times in the next days. The best bet was to get onto the Autoroute (Peage toll roads) as they all seemed to be full. But bouncing along little back country roads was no possible as all these local stations were empty. Only larger supermarkets had supplies but they could run out. If there were any queues it was advisable to walk to the front and see what was already sold out as you may be queuing for diesel only ! A few times had to use 95 + E10 ethanol mix as it was all that was left. Runs a bit rough but does no harm. With all this going on it spoiled the plans for spending a few days in one spot doing some sight seeing, and just wanted to get home. Here she is - the "slow, boring, old fashioned bulbous Blade " what a star: Canyon Fireblade resize by 660 Mattie, on Flickr
Well you seemed to have enjoyed it more than me! Having been to dozens of race meetings around the world I found the Mugello crowd to be the most unsporting, partisan crowd I have ever had the displeasure to be part of. My trip was avoiding autoroutes as far as possible and doing the Route Napolean on the way down. First night (Monday) was spent in Blois, second night in St Etienne before riding a brilliant road from St Etienne towards Annecy, then picking up the Route Napolean at Dignes Les Bain and spending Wednesday night in the Premiere Classe Hotel on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice. Thursday morning was spent riding the hills behind Nice, Monaco and Menton before picking up the coast road to San Remo and then on towards Genoa. Unfortunately the weather changed and I headed for the motorway to try and make better headway. I arrived at a place called Firenzuolo in the Tuscan hills at 6 o'clock after hours of terrible weather. Friday morning saw me trying to skirt Mugello ( very difficult with the apparent lack of policing around the circuit ) to get to my accommodation 25 miles the other side of the circuit. This was the twistyist 25 miles I have ever ridden and took 1 hour 10 minutes each time. Apart from the Rossi groupies I enjoyed the racing from the centrale silver stand before getting stuck in the chaos that was the exit. Monday saw me leaving at 6am heading for the autostrada via Imola. In Milan I stopped for petrol just as the heavens opened. After sitting it out for an hour I decided to press on regardless. There then followed the worst conditions I have ridden in ( for more than an half hour) for the next seven and a half hours. Lashing down, plus very high winds through the Aosta valley and freezing sleet at the Mont Blanc tunnel. I arrived in Moulin at 6pm that evening ( about 600 miles). Tuesday saw me doing the last 400 miles to St Malo and arriving at 2 pm ( that's a total of just over a thousand miles of riding in 19 hours ). As there was no boat on Tuesday I had a boring day in St Malo before getting the boat on Wednesday. That's two consecutive trips to Italy spoiled by the weather so next year I'll think I'll brave the North West 200 It can't get any wetter!
Road trips have their highs and lows, as I am sure you know - deeply despondent one day and then all that passes with cheers the next day. To me riding in the rain is still riding my bike, just different riding my bike. So quite happy with that. Tucked in behind the screen on the CBR, lying on the tank, hammering it through the rain on the long roads, was awesome. What really pi$$ed me off was the French fuel strike because I had to limp along some of the finest biking roads on almost empty, worrying about running out of petrol. Then not being able to stay a couple of days somewhere and do some more riding, leaving the luggage at a campsite. I was really looking forward to that - no fuel, means no riding, which is bad ! I have never been to an Italian race before, but I suspect they have always been partisan since the first days of motor racing. Lovely race track though wasn't it ? I am sure it wasn't all bad for you, and I think you met a little group of Guernsey riders at a Campanile Hotel ? they had just done a trip to Spain, one was on a red Triumph Explorer 1200. I met them queueing for the ferry and they said they had met a Jersey reg Aprilia that had just come back from Mugello, in super quick time - nice bloke they said !! One song that will always remind me of this trip, still going around in my head, sang to myself ! Mambo Italiano
No, my trip wasn't all bad. The relaxed ride down was really good until the weather changed on the Thursday lunchtime. I actually quite like the occasional ride in the rain but 5 hours solid rain on the Thursday with no let up and no sign of improvement was more than I would choose. The Italians are always quite partisan but having done Monza x 5, Misano x 4, Imola x 1 and Mugello once before (that time it was Rossi vs Biaggi) I was really disappointed with the booing and whistles for anybody other than Rossi. It was all they could do to applauded Iannone on the podium! I couldn't believe it when I pulled into the Campanile and parked between two Guernsey bikes, nice guys who had had a relaxed ride around France and Spain. Glad to hear they got back to the ferry ok without too much hassle with refuelling. I took the above picture on the way out of the circuit, saves having to pack everything up.
