Le Mans MotoGP 2012 - Days 2&3

Saturday

After breakfast we took the non-toll route to Le Mans. Woody leading as my TomTom was misbehaving. (http://invictamoto.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/tomtom.html)

At the hotel we of course donned waterproofs. The BMW hand guards are excellent water holders...

Water collectors

At the track they affix a sticker to the headlamp and give you the other half. On leaving both have to match. They also want to see the bike's log book. French ones are small, our are four pages of A4 and paper. As it is peezing down there is no way I am getting mine out of the topbox!

We arrived in time for the Moto2 free session and all three classes qualifying.

All the commentary in French. A summary in English at the end is spoken by a guy that learned English in a vacuum.

It drizzled all day. Rained hard at times. Almost trench foot.

Saturday evening and as a result of my schoolboy French in booking a table, we ate at the nearby Campanile. After eating we watched the Champions League final on TV.

Sunday

Up earlier, same route, same rigmarole to park, same logbook stays in topbox. Found a space near where we were yesterday. There are plenty of grandstands and about half of them are free. They were chock full.

We saw the warm-up and then all three races.

Of course we were supporting the British riders with backup of Valentino Rossi in GP.

In Moto2 our riders Scott Redding and Bradley Smith were pressing for the podium and after a scare Bradders dropped way back and fought back to 8th. Scott did better and as the last British rider to win a GP, got another podium.

Sadly in MotoGP we had a disappointment when Cal Crutchlow came a cropper when contesting for third with Rossi and Dovicioso.

The ride for James Ellison was more successful as he was first across the line to be the CRT class winner.

The weather looked up and it was drying as we left for "home", but it didn't last. Raining again for the last twenty miles or so.

We have been wearing waterproof over clothes for almost three days. Luckily trench foot hasn't set in

A brief dry spell in the evening meant we could go and get dinner but the rain soon came back.

Tomorrow we are looking at a WW2 monument near Argentan and maybe Camembert. Weather dependent of course.