Before Christmas I promised I would post a write-up of the amazing weekend I had at the Valencia MotoGP round when I won an all-expenses-paid trip to meet Rossi courtesy of the Riders for Health competition they ran last year. Despite best efforts to find the spare time to do it ever since, work, holidays and illness got in the way Before you know it it's February! Anyway, enough with the excuses - I've finally found enough time to sort the pics out and knock some words up to try and describe an experience of a lifetime...
Friday - Day 1 The RfH competition had entries from all over the world so Riders couldn't book the flights to Valencia until the winner was drawn. With such short notice the only flights out to Valencia were on sleasyJet, which was more than ok with me as I fly ABR - 'Anyone But Ryanair'! It did mean an early start at Gatwick for the 7.30am flight though but it was packed with fellow MotoGP fans as well as a few names such as Charlie Cox and Danny John Jules ('Cat' from Red Dwarf, and celeb biker). We got chatting to Danny and his mate Steve whilst on the tarmac on arrival at Valencia and then bumped into them several times across the weekend. They were top blokes and Danny was very friendly the whole weekend with fans wanting a picture, which is the one thing we didn't think to get! The hot topic of the day was last night's unbelievable news that Rossi had effectively sacked Jerry Burgess. Little was known at that point what had gone on and why Rossi thought it a good idea to ditch the master crew chief behind many of his world championships, not to mention Mick Doohan and Wayne Gardner's. Had Rossi lost his mind? Were there politics at play? Who was he going to get in place of JB? It was all very strange and hopefully it would become clearer over the course of the weekend. But for the time being, it was business as usual for JB and Rossi's last race together...
Thankfully the cold, damp weather in Blighty wasn't replicated in Valencia and it stayed glorious for the whole weekend, hitting 26°c on some days. Compared to previous years and particularly 2012 with that half-wet/half-dry race, it was a welcome relief that this year bucked the trend. After a quick transfer to the hotel to check-in and dump bags, we got a taxi up to the track to meet up with the people from Riders For Health. We got our Paddock Passes and told we could use Alpinestars' hospitality throughout the weekend, which was great as it's one of the better hospitalities in the paddock and being a bit of an Astars fanboi I felt right at home! We stopped and had lunch in there with Steven from RfH and Randy Mamola who apart from being a racing leg-end is one of the co-founders and vociferous campaigner for RfH - and boy can he talk the hind legs off a donkey! We also met Andrea, one of the other 2 RfH co-founders, saw the BBC MotoGP team, got introduced to Gavin Emmett, and bumped into Danny JJ & Steve again. With lunch done we had a gander round the paddock area, which was fairly quiet today but got noticeably busier on Saturday and mentally busy on the Sunday, as expected, but Friday was nice and quiet...
Handy reference for any racer new to MotoGP..! Very possibly my next bike purchase... (not in this colour, though)
Then news came through that we were to meet up with Vale today. We were told to go to the Yamaha trucks behind their pit garage after FP2 finished, so we finished our coffees and headed round. There was a fair wait with the assembled journos whilst the riders debriefed in the garage: Lorenzo came out and did some media interviews in between the trucks where we were stood. He looked relaxed and happy and then headed into his truck after waving at the hordes of fans kept at bay behind the rope. Here's a pic that he tweeted just after: and this is one we took at the same time!
Once Lorenzo was out of the way, Vale appears and also does a few media interviews: However once the interviews were over he casually walks past us and into his truck!! Bemused, we sought out his handler who then realised he'd forgotten to brief him about the meet and was very apologetic and headed off to see what he could do. He came back and told us to meet up at Yamaha hospitality at 4.30pm for the Media Press Conference and we'll get to meet him after that so in the meantime we had a wander around and caught Marquez trying to get to his motorhome: (the woman on the left thrust her baby into Marquez's arms for a photo!)
Just before 4.30 we made our way round to the Yam hospitality and mingled around. The press conference was standard practice on race weekends, where Rossi and Lorenzo would field questions from the Press about the day's practice sessions and their plans for qualifying and the race. What we didn't know at that point was that there had been a change of plan... At 4.30 one of the senior Yam PR bods came round and cleared the whole place of anyone who wasn't media accredited. Thankfully because of our arrangement to meet with Vale afterwards we were allowed to stay so were the only non-journos in the place for what turned out to be one of the most extraordinary press conferences in MotoGP history! The first inkiling that something was about to go down was when Julian Ryder came over to chat before it started and said that he thought there would be "blood on the carpet". We thought it was a bit over-dramatic for a standard media drill, but presumed he meant Rossi could expect some questions about JB. Then the Yam PR guy comes out with a mic to start the conference and says: "Welcome guys. Now, please note that this will not be the normal debriefing with Jorge and Vale as following the news yesterday and the hundreds of requests for interviews from all of you we decided to change it and give you guys a chance to interview JB and Vale together." We looked at each other in shock and the realisation that this could be quite tasty! The vibes around the place before the press conference were pretty unanimously in JB's favour and that VR had done the wrong thing with the sacking and in particular the timing of it. (JB had only found out about the sacking the day before, just before it went public) Just then the journos took their seats and the conference was to begin, with JB & VR taking their seats at the front: So with proceedings under way, various journos were throwing questions to Rossi and JB and it was clear what they thought of it all. They were pulling no punches and to their credit both Burgess and Rossi gave answers to each question and both seemed to speak honestly. Even though I disagreed with the decision I was actually feeling a bit sorry for Rossi as he was getting a right verbal kicking off the journos. His face told it all, which is summed up by this pic that Matthew Birt of MCN tweeted: It really was a tense and emotional press conference. JB's mechanics were all stood nearby, there to give him moral support. JB pulled no punches and the analogy of the boxer coming to the end of his career and changing his trainer in one last ditch attempt at glory was a great jibe at Rossi! It was a privilege to be there to experience that, although it didn't exactly set us up for the best atmosphere to meet the GOAT afterwards! He looked really deflated and a bit bemused by all the ill-feeling towards him following his announcement but was still willing to meet us, which given what he had just gone through I know I wouldn't! He was a true pro and he even joked about being in good company on my t-shirt as I was wearing this. He was quite solemn though and probably quite keen to get back to his motorhome, away from the assembled journos. The time we had with VR was brief and to be honest we were too gobsmacked at what we'd just sat through to strike up more conversation sadly, but were kicking ourselves after that we didn't as he was very amiable but it didn't seem appropriate to ask him anything mundane and couldn't mention JB obviously, but it was good to meet him all the same.
Following the excitement of the day at the track we then spent the night at a charity party arranged by the tour company that we had been partnered with for track transfers and the like. They'd hired out a local club and laid on a free bar and nibbles for all their clients on the various tour packages. Cal Crutchlow was meant to show up but got waylaid with his leaving party at Tech3 back in the Paddock so he sent down Dek in his place to tell a few stories and thank them for their support. The night included a charity auction in aid of an Irish-based Downs Syndrome charity. They had various signed bits of gear but I was interested in the day at the Ron Haslam school so bid for and won that. It includes a pillion ride round Donny on the back of Ron's Blade the thought of which is terrifying, it has to be said! Saturday - Day 2 Late nights with free booze and early starts definitely don't mix! As we were relying on the tour company to get us up to the track we had to be ready early doors to beat the traffic. Getting to the circuit at 8.30am was only partially sweetened by the fact that we had use of Alpinestars' and LCR's hospitalities, but it took a good while to shake off the raging hangover. Because of this the day was a bit of an anti-climax compared to the Friday but was good just to mill around the Paddock and hospitalities spotting famous bikers and other celebs. We saw Mark Cavendish and Randy heading out for his Ducati 2-seater lap and some moto-x dude called Jeremy McGrath confused: had to be told who he was!) was hanging round the Astars hosp all day, as were Eugene Laverty and girlfriend. A quiet meal and drink in Valencia's Old Town was just what we needed to recharge and get ready for tomorrow.
Sunday - Day 3 Race day. Another early start and rightly so with the traffic up to the track getting quite manic even at 8am, so we were glad to get up there and soak up the atmosphere. Valencia's quite a unique circuit as it's fairly compact by most's standards and it has grandstands around three sides of it so looks like a huge arena/bowl complex. You can look across to the other side of the circuit and see the crowds, even if you can't quite see all of the track and it feels quite intimate in a way. Well, as intimate as 104,000 fans can make it! Temperatures were soaring again and quickly up to 26°c. We watched the Moto3 and Moto2 races from the grandstand then headed back round to the Paddock for the grid. There really was a fantastic atmosphere in the grandstands, but not when I took this early on...
With the Moto2 race done we left the grandstand and headed back round to the Paddock for the next part of our dream prize - the gridwalk! With the hospitalities overflowing with celebs and VIPs and seemingly half of Spain turning out for this end-of-season championship decider, grid passes were like gold-dust. We were briefed on what to do as we would be going on unaccompanied and were under strict instructions not to get in the way of any riders or mechanics and to come off when the siren went to clear the grid for the start of the race. (Apparently when Riders did something similar before they guy who got the grid pass didn't reappear and they were looking everywhere for him. Turned out he was on the pitwall and they had to get security to grab him back!) When the riders went out on their out-laps we went onto the grid and stood by the pitwall waiting for the bikes come round. We saw Gerard Pique (Barca defender, partner of Shakira, all-round jammy git), being interviewed by TV Matt Roberts blocking the view! Marquez arriving at grid Dovi heading off for a waz
Cal Mark Cavendish "How do I ride this thing again?" We stood next to the BBC cameras whilst Matt interviewed Cal, and went to move away just as the cameraman and Stavros Parrish's missus (floor manager or summat) decided to move to follow Matt to his next rider. We very nearly had an almighty collision and were met with an icy glare from Mrs Parrish When we watched the BBC coverage back at home there was a definite jolt on camera!
The time on the grid seemed more like 12 seconds than 12 minutes. We managed to get round the front few rows and hadn't expected to get anywhere near the front guys but it wasn't too bad. We felt a bit sorry for the guys further back as they didn't have many people around them. Some proper Billy no-mates. One exception was Bradl who had Felix Baumgartner as buddy for the weekend. Bradl with Feliz Baumgautner to the left Bautista Bradley Smith with Randy Hayden Colin (& Aly)
Once off the grid, we only had a few minutes to make our way round to the grandstand which was a fair distance to get to. The only downer on the whole weekend was the Spanish organisation - or lack thereof. They managed to let anyone and everyone into the stands regardless of whether they had a ticket and then stopped letting anyone in including those who did have a ticket so we ended up missing the first part of the race as we had to head back to the paddock to watch the rest of the it there. We watched in the Astars gaff along with Eugene Laverty and his bird again, and Dek Crutchlow. With the race, championship and celebrations all done and dusted and it was back to the hotel to get ready for the last part of the prize - tickets to the FIM Awards Ceremony in the massive new exhibition/conference halls in Valencia. We were accompanied by one of the tour reps and another lady who had a ticket, so got a taxi up and had to walk through the autograph-hunters hoping for a glimpse of their riding heros. It was well-attended with all the Spanish stars, as well as Scott Redding and others. It was interesting to mill around at the pre-event drinks with Marquez and Redding and their crews but it was all very civilised (until later! more on that in a bit), and we took our seats on the front row, on the outside. Thankfully the Awards only went on for an hour or so. It was a bit dry but good to see Marquez get his trophy and be congratulated by Pedrosa and Lorenzo, gritted teeth and all.
That was the end of the official competition prize package although RfH, gawd bless 'em, came up trumps with a pair of tickets to the Holy Grail of MotoGP fandom - the official aftershow/end-of-season party - which is an all-nighter affair held in a superclub they'd hired out on the outskirts of Valencia. This is where the journos, race crews, bosses and riders all let their hair down - well, as much as they can do when they start testing for the 2014 season the following day and make excellent use of having a huge club with free bar all night. Thankfully Dorna announced that testing would be pushed back to the afternoon as they realised the teams wanted to party! We rocked up with a couple of others from the tour company who also got tickets and had a great night. It was busy but didn't stop some big names coming down and rubbing shoulders with the great and the good from the paddock. Some of those we bumped into included Marquez, Pedrosa, Bradley Smith, Bautista, Randy de Puniet & his missus Lauren Vickers, Colin Edwards & his missus Aly, Randy Mamola, Loris Capirossi, as well as the BBC team inc. Matt Roberts, Azi and Gavin Emmett. Jack Miller was on fine form as he climbed onto the DJ booth and was throwing some mean shapes to a baying crowd! The free bars were understandably popular and at one point I made my way to one to get some replenishments so worked my way in between some guests and caught the barmaid's eye to get my order in. Just then I heard the bloke next to me say (very loudly): "Heeey!! I was next! You pushed in!" As I turned around to offer my sincerest 'you snooze, you lose!' condolences I began to recognise the face. By the time I was facing him I had realised I had actually pushed in front of Livio Suppo!! I couldn't apologise enough and offered to get him his drinks (I would've paid as well if it hadn't already been free!) but thankfully he was in the party spirit and was very gracious and gave me a homie handshake. He is one person I did not want to get the wrong side of, that's for sure! We left the club around 4.30am and headed back into Valencia and a very welcoming bed. I didn't take a camera or phone as it wasn't really appropriate to 'pap' them all while they were having their own do. Shame though as there would have been some amazing pics from that night!
Day 4 - Monday Our flight back to Blighty wasn't until the evening so we had the day to ourselves. We could have gone up to the track to watch the first testing sessions for the 2014 season but we opted for a walk around the town and a beer or two on the beach: Old/Current Footie Stadium New Footie Stadium (Half-finished, as they ran out of money) Late afternoon by the beach
