It's that time of the year. The Jerez de La Frontera MotoGP event is next week-end.
For those of you who have just watched on TV, you have absolutely no idea of what this week-end is like. Not even close !
I'll try to explain, even though you have to go there to see for yourself.
On sunday there is a race. An important race, right ? Well, imagine well over 300,000 riders from all over Europe converging to a single town, thousands and thousands and thousands of bikes filling all and any road that leads to Jerez and neighbouring villas. Some years ago I went to Jerez, and for 2/3 of the whole 500 miles I had to ride, there were people on the freeway overpasses and out on the streets waving to the bikes passing by, people up in balconies whishing us a good trip, and all in a friendly and effusive way.
Stopping for gas naturally leads to having to wait on a long line of bikes, but the amazing thing is that looking back at the main road, bikes keep going by for minutes, hours...It seems like there's no end to the amount of motorcycles that keep on passing by.
Once approaching Jerez, let's say 50 miles out, the roads are all covered in bikes. Cars have trouble to move, since bikes are passing left and right. Traffic jams are very common, but this time, even though lane splitting is legal, the problem is that there are thousands of lane splitters going for it.
The true party is usually not in Jerez, but in many of the neighbouring towns, packed full of adrenaline induced young and old riders, who fill all bars and restaurants with a happy and festive glow. The attraction of great food (excellent seafood there!!!) great drinks and a week-end long party attracts thousands !
One of the most charismatic towns during this week-end is Puerto de Sta Maria, where even the local authorities demonstrate tremendous patience and even close a couple of streets by protecting the sidewalk areas with gratings. Crazier stunters or wanna-bes are then allowed to go through that street and show off their skills without the police bothering them. If you want me to mention a movie I could compare the two nights before the race in Puerto de Sta Maria to, it would be something between Mad Max and Torque... Bikes with no exhausts revving up to the rev limiter, burnouts occurring every minute, every 30 seconds, wheelies, stoppies, and everyone clapping, cheering and having a blast !!!
[image]http://mk23.image.pbase.com/u15/darman/upload/41837017.DSC_3416.jpg[/image]
[image]http://mishuna.image.pbase.com/u14/darman/upload/41804560.DSC_3275.jpg[/image]
It's crazy, very crazy, I know. But, if you ever get the chance, you need to go to the Jerez de la Frontera MotoGP race, at least once in your life...