Valencia MotoGP 2010 - Shovelhead's adventure

Ola powersliders,

Well, it has been a few days now that I have been back so it's time to put up a story about my trip.



As you all know, this is my second time in Valencia, this trip was even better.



Here it goes...



Back in December 2009, I booked our flight (me and my pal Dave) A whooping $604 per person, Seattle to Valencia Return.

So this trip was decided 11 months in advance.



Last year we stayed at the Expo Valencia, great location, the subway is just there, the mall is next door and Old town is a brisk walk, so we decided to stay there again.

On my weekly internet search I booked 6 nights for 745 Euros, not bad but one day, I found a special, the same 6 nights plus a bottle of champagne on arrival and continental breakfast delivered to our room daily for 543 euros, go figure, so when you guys book a room, make sure you pick "Valencia Romance Package", who cares...I saved 200 euros.

Anyways, Andy from the UK (the beer guzzling dude that was in Indy 2010) bunked with us and we added one night, so the total after taxes was 224 Euros each for 7 days. Yikes I'm good.



Anyways, day 1 Tuesday

2 Hour drive from Vancouver to the Seattle airport, fly to Chicago, switch plane to Madrid and one other plane to Valencia. Total flying time is 13.5 hrs. I almost missed the plane in Madrid as I was stuck in passport control and when I got to the plane, they were taking my luggage out, I just made it, phewww.

That was an overnight flight so now we're on day 2 Wednesday.



Landed in Valencia, again public transportation is awesome, we catch the subway from the airport all the way to the hotel, sweet.

Check in and out we go for some shopping. gotta remember that the stores in Spain are closed in the afternoon for the siesta.

I bought some bike parts, nice Richa rain jacket while Dave picked up a nice Dainese jacket for 140 Euros.

We make it back to the hotel. We head down to the bar, not as many people as last year but quire a few.

This is where we meet Phill and his 2 sons, all Yorkies (damn they are hard to comprehend).



Phill is on this trip with his 2 sons for his 41st b-day, it's their first Motogp adventure.

After talking and drinking with them, I tell them about "Thursday day of champion" at the track, 85 euros but well worth it as they will attest.



Day 3 Thursday.

Leaving the Hotel at about 9 to catch the tube, 6 stops later we're at the commuter train, 4 stops and 20 minutes later, we're just out of the circuit entrance.

I head to the accreditation office and pick up my 2 Motogp premium paddock passes I won on after the flag trivia.

Me and Dave go in with my passes while Phill and his sons participate in the event which brings them into the circuit, pit walk, paddock access all day, lunch for their 85 euros.

Now if you guys remember, I helped a friend buy a bike in Vancouver and will be shipping it to France, in return he was going to give me 2 Motogp hospitality passes, well Jean Jacques fell short and only had one LCR Hospitality pass for me.

So Dave kept his and Andy took my other one, I was going to sell it but it appears that Andy thought it was free, so I got nothing for it., oh well we'll work on that one later.



Anyways, there was 2 people that were interested in passes for sale, I had 2 available from my friend the team manager at Matteoni racing for sale (with no profit) and one chick Leandra was supposed to meet me at the gate for one pass and the other one was for Big Al, (one wheel commando). Anyways, I got stood up at the gate, apparently Leandra got a free one from someone else, ah...the power of the ...... anyways now I had 2 passes and I did not hear from Big Al, I thought Fawk....now I'm stuck with 2 extra passes, which I was going to offload at the hotel later on the evening.

So on Thursday still, I go see all my connections, say hi to all the peeps I know and put in a request for 2 passes to the FIM awards to my friend at Dorna,

So now it's about 4pm and we meet up with Phill and his crew, they are so happy they made it for the day.

;All the events at the track is over and people/riders are walking/bike riding the track, so I decide to take a team scooter and take a lap of the track, as soon as I got on the scooter, Phill the yorkie wants to ride ..... and go for a lap, I took him around the track, Oh man, he was soooo excited, I felt something poking me in the back hahaha. then I took the scooter for a lap alone. Nice track,

After that we all decided to walk the track, sweet.

We stick around and end up going back to the hotel by 8pm where as we walked into the hotel, some big commando dude comes and approached me and introduced himself, it was Big Al. Great now he's got 2 passes one for himself and the other one for his son.



Day 4 Friday,

We all head down to the Circuit, I spend most of my day at the LCR garage and their Hospitality while Dave, Andy, Big Al and Danny spend their day near and around the moto2 garage. The Yorkies had great grandstand seats.



Day 5 and 6 Saturday/Sunday

Great days at the track, got to the parc fermee after all the events. Awesome days.

On Sunday Morning, I still haven't heard from my friend about the FIM awards so I go and see another friend and ask for a couple of passes as I desperately needed a back up plan.

Well by Noon, I had 4 invites to the awards, i thought Great, I can sell a pair and subsidize my trip as on Thursday evening at the charity auction, a pair of FIM awards invites sold for 500 euros. Well, get the vaseline out because I got screwed again, Andy and Big Al ended up taking the invites and we got nothing for it, I even ended up paying for the cab to and from the event.

My pal Dave seems to be willing to give everything away.

Anyways, the awards were awesome.



Day 7 Monday

Moto2 test. Me and Dave spend the day at the testing as we got passes from my friend.

Monday was the day to network to get passes for Tuesday .

I meet up with some journalists from the UK, they said that they are leaving monday night and will not need their motogp test passes so they promised to us, great....until I realized that they were pulling my chain, it was late in the afternoon and I needed some passes for the morning, I ran into Hervey Poncheral and after talking with him (in french) he said he'd have 2 passes for me in the morning, grrrrreat, now I have to get in to get to him in the morning.

I ended up chatting with a German journalist which lent me his pass for Thursday so I can get in to meet Hervey, the only condition was for me to mail it back to him. Awesome dude.



Day 8 Tuesday

Big Al and Danny left for the UK on their GS1200 in the morning.

We're at the Hotel, I have 1 pass to get in the circuit and am supposed to get another 2 from Tech3, so I tell Dave and Yorkie to get to the track. All along, anyone could pay 5 euros for bleacher seats for the tests.

We get to the circuit at 830am and by 10 i have 2 extra passes. Within minutes. Dave and Yorkie are on pit lane for the test session.

We had a great day, left the circuit at about 4 and headed to the hotel.



We all went out for dinner in the old town.



Day 9 Wednesday...

Left for the airport in the morning

Valencia to Madrid 1 hr

2.5 hrs in Madrid

Madrid to Chicago 9.5 hrs

6 hrs in Chicago

Chicago to Seattle 4.5hrs

Seattle to Home 2.5hrs

Got home at 230am, greeted by my fabulous GF and got to sleep at 6am.



Tired but well worth the trip.



I took about 850 pictures, Yorkie took 2500 and Big Al, who knows.





So now my next trip is to Silverstone in June, all on Andy's dime, (I feel I prepaid my stay) and he lives 30 minutes from the circuit.

more pics

moooore

Excellent pics Shovelhead!!! Thanks for sharing.

Really great stuff, Shovel. Thanks for sharing. I think you might be better-connected than Jumkie is inventive, which is saying something.

That looked awseome! Thanks for posting the pics! You're from Vancouver?

a few more...taken with my blackberry



Now...the first picture I had to take it, some dude is in the Subway with cowboy boots and toy revolvers, WTF...

Great stuff

great stuff



that picture of pedrosa made me lose it lol

pedbot indeed

cheers cracking stuff

Wow Shov, that is excellent. You really did the triple lindi on that trip: race, awards, & test. I think you take the cake buddy. Great pics and full access. Very well done! Great write up too.

one of the best week i had in my life with Dave and shovelhead they are good people

i was at the same place as those boys

it blow my mind where they got use

walking the track / pit walk /getting my top sind by Rossi /and many other thinks

this is phill's son Daniel for Barnsley in Yorkshire

thank for a grate weekend

I was there with shovelhead and Dave i am Daniel phills son from Yorkshire i live in Barnsley



it was the best week of my life so far the thing i have done has blown my mind it was the best time i have ever had on holiday



i walked round the track / walked up pit lain / got top sind by rossi / meat a lot of rides it has blown my mind



thank for that boys it was mint

I got mixed emotions. I'm both hugely grateful that you put the photos up and

on the other hand immensely envious of you .......

Cheers,

K

Stoner looks like a midget next to his wife.

As they all do



Capi is the classic to me



But all that means bugger all, I mean



Stoner goes home with Adriana



Capi goes home with Ingrid



Pedro goes home with his hot g/f



Rossi has a nice new G/f, with whom he probably goes home .....



do you ?

BarryMachine said:

Rossi has a nice new G/f, with whom he probably goes home .....

Click to expand...

I have never seen Rossi in a photo with a confirmed female, unless you count Uccio as a female.

eltoro said:

I have never seen Rossi in a photo with a confirmed female, unless you count Uccio as a female.

Click to expand...

No he has a pretty decent looking new G/f now ..... at least I hope its still her .........Marwa Klebi ....... still her?



She's the first chic I've seen him with that didn't look like she still needed a bit more gerni'ing after he picked her up out of the gutter, nice looking, probably very smart, no nudey shots from this one ..... and ....... he actually made some comment about wanting to become father a few weeks ago.



I can see why Uccio is pissed

Does anyone know who this guy is?

He's always with Lorenzo, just like an Uccio.

shovelhead said:

Does anyone know who this guy is?

He's always with Lorenzo, just like an Uccio.

Click to expand...

that i believe is dani palau a freind from his chldhood who is his uccio..



shovel i'm just back to iraq and i'm still settleing in here great pics by the way . and i will start my contribution to the thread with my story of a great week with and lots of pics tomorrow when i have a bit of time



panzer