Strange

That was some strange end of a six days. Day 5 passed without problems for Tory, she lost a couple of minutes at the start, repairing her clutch, it made a funny sound. With the help of Joe she managed to solve the problem. Her day went by pretty good. picked up a couple of minutes during the day on a very challenging course. Thierry had some issues with his rear brake but managed to get it going during the day to cool the brake down with gas from his tank. He was about 30 minutes late at the end of day 5. The mechanic was able to bleed the brakes so he was all ready for day 6.
We all were ready for day 6, up at 6, breakfast at 6.30, leave at 07.00 on our way to check 2 I was working with Mike and Butch this morning, Jan and Ilka would take care of the start and Kim and David with Michell were ready at the MX to help the riders. We were not able to locate the check at Cointzio and stopped at the gas station to get directions, during the talk the phone rang and Kim told us that the day 6 was cancelled due to a drug gang revenge. We could not believe it, but when we arrived at the impound area, several people were already discussing what happened. Several car bombs went of on Friday evening, a shooting took place with the police. and several roads were blocked. Close to our hotel a car bomb went off, the french connection were in a restaurant and saw it happening but finished their meal and went home. They did not seem to think it was a problem.
Well after hanging around at the impound and some last minute shopping we went to the pool at the hotel had a swim, beer and food enjoying an unexpected day off. After a nice dinner went to bed early for a long night.
Today, sunday we went sightseeing again to tzintzintzan, we were here before on the day of the death, today we wanted to have a closer look on the churchyard and the tempels.
A great day with lots of history. We are going for a massage later this evening.

pictures

stat day 4

Another day, Alley quit yesterday after 1 lap, she houred out so did not want to do the second loupe.
Thierry decided to change his rear tire but had problems getting the new tire on, he used the old mousse, after trying and trying the new mousse was put in and the tire came on quickly. He lost 6 minutes unfortunately.
Tory was very sick again, she did a rear tire change in 5 minutes and changed the filter. After impounding the bike sche collapsed. She had another if and she was taken to the hospital.
They checked her over, gave her some antibiotics to clear the infection in her intestines.
Morning of day 5 she was still very weak and had to go by the hospital to get the all clear from a doctor. She was allowed to ride, but she has no strenght, pale, weak, she got all the ladies cry when her start minute came up, It was hard to see somebody so sick get on a bike and start for a seven hour ride.
I am now on the noon check at impound, she just came by and still being strong. and determined to finish the day.
Thierry lost 20 minutes with electrical problems and is not in yet.

Dia del Muerto

Monday night we went to see the celebration of the day of the death in Txitzitzuan, walked the cemetery with miljons of lights,flowers and food, amazing to see, we walked to the church passed lots of food stands, artisians, pottery, clothing stands. The church was very impressive, build from stones from the old aztek tempels. big olive trees. that probably date back to the 1600's trunks as big as a car. We will get back there during the daytime to see the temples church and the lake.

Race day 2, Tory is still not feeling well, she is still riding, At the end of day 2 Kim took her to the American doctor, he gave her some pills and an iv. She was feeling better this morning. She changed her front tire in about six minutes after a 7 hour ride, again great job Tory.
Alley lost a couple of minutes during the day, changed her rear tire, filter. and was happy after her massage.

Karine houred out at impound at noon check. she is very disapointed. Had dinner with her and the french connection in a fancy restaurant yesterday evening. We did some talking and hopefully we will see her back in Finland or Germany.

Thierry is going strong, his tests are not very fast but he is riding along and having fun.

According to Thierry and Tory the course today is very challinging, lots of round rocks, technical. Tory lost about 20 minutes in the first loup. Thierry is still on time. Alley is now 45 minutes late.

Finish day 1

Well day 1 is finished, Tory and Almeda did fine, they both picked up some minutes, we are not exactly sure were this happened but our Jury member Chuck will be able to check what happened and hopefully they will get back on their minutes. Tory changed her tire in 4 minutes, great job TORY. She amazed me !! Almeda just changed her filter. As mentiond in my earlier blog Karine had some trouble aftr her crash in one of the tests earlier today, she almost houred out her bark buster was busted up this gave her trouble. She entered her bike with 3 minutes before she houred out.

Thierry is fine, had plenty of time during the checks I worked on. He is being a pain in the but. wanting to know his time every 30 seconds. He is happy and having a massage when we left.

Our car is fixed again, the battery of the key was empty so we were not able to open or start the car this morning. Luckily the rental company had it fixed before noon and rode the car to the impound area.
Tonight at 21.30 we will go to a day of the death celebration in Pasquaro. This should be a spectaculair evening, we will report on that.
I have not been able to take any pictures today, looking after 19 riders is challenging.

Day 1 noon check Impound

Yes, service packs there was nobody in the working area of the the service crew, they slept in, Finally we got it all working. Nice group of riders, did time keeping for start and noon check for 19 riders busy, hot, but very exiting. Tory was not feeling good last night, probably she ate something wrong or the heat got to her. today she was better after some imodeum. She looked great at the noon check still on time and she happy. Alley also has a great time up till now. She is riding great tests.
Karine on the other hand crashed in one of the tests on her wrist, and was hurting pretty bad.She lost about 40 minutes in the first lap, hopefully after some painkillers she will be able to ride on time again.
Just heared fromPatrick he saw in the results Tory and Alley lost a couple of minutes, we will try and find our what is going on there.

Yesterday afternoon we finally had some rain, a real thunderstorm with lots of rain and wind.
the dust is down

Tech in and opening ceremonies

Yesterday tech in at 10.40, the weather was a lot cooler, foggy, windy, clouds, real jacket weather, most of us did not bring the jacket, so it was pretty cool. Before tech in it was time for pictures. unfortunately the starting ramp was not up yet so we had to take pictures on a dusty road with the city as backdrop. It looks pretty good. Tech in went smoothly, no major problems, done in 20 minutes. After lunch at Lillians Coffee we went to an orchid exhibition in town. The traffic was crazy, so we lost Kim and David in this mess, we could wave them in at the Orchids eventually. The exhibit was a bit disappointing, very small but beautiful flowers. we were done in 15 minutes, we decided to do some shopping in the mall (Sears) but could not find what we were looking for (Lee jeans). We thought it was time for a swim in the pool and a nice cold Corona (or two).

Today we got up pretty early we wanted to find a couple of time checks and go to Pasquara. This town is famous for its day of the death celebrations, nice old center of town with great markets.
We spend a couple of ours in town walking the markets, the sounds, smells an colours were fantastic. We will go to the day of the death celebrations, on November 1st. Kim's friend will take us and show us the most beautiful places.
Had lunch at Lillians and went swimming for half an hour. had a meeting at 4.30 and left with taxi's to the opening ceremonies.
Never seen such a crowd at the opening ceremonies, a great parade through the center of town. People all dressed up, great ambiance. Riders and support crew were separated unfortunately after that the speeches started and some acrobatic trial riders started to do his tricks, we left when the police started to perform on some old bikes. Most Canadians stayed in town to go to the governess's palace to have a drink and some hours d' ouvres.

admin

Today was admin day, admin scheduled for 12.00, so we planned to sleep in, off course this did not work out somehow. Woke up at around 06.00, not sleeping again. Breakfast at 08.30, drive up to the impound was easy. Girls and Thierry still not arrived, we did some t-shirt shopping, nice merchandise by the way. Did admin at 12.00 no problems there, some pictures were taken, with the Man who thinks he is in charge in the middle of the picture.
Checked out some check points today, just to get out of the ciry, it is so busy, drove up the mountain through nice pine forrest up a gravel road to test and TC 1\4, beautiful scenery.
Back at the hotel at 06.00 for a meeting.
Now we are going to bed and tomorrow we have to do tech. at 10.40

tire changes

We did some sight seeing yesterday morning, we went to the centro of Morelia the check out the cathedral and old buildings there. What a great sight that big cathedral in the middle of town, cars, trucks, motorcycles etc. racing by on 4 sides. The cathedral is just there in all its glory, breath taking. We walked down to the aquaduct. Behind the houses court yards are visible, with wonderful fences in front, nice tile work and pillars. The aquaduct goes on for several kilometers and is beautiful restored, looked at another church, inside was full of color, pink, purple, yellow, almost an psychedelic experience.

Went back to the impound area where the girls and thierry were working on their bikes, alley was having problems with her front mouse could not get it on, got help form one of the american girs, she rood ISDE 5 times, so experienced, but could not get it on. Back to Wolfgang, they just found out some mouses were to big to fit the tire. They opened a new production line, and this produced some very big mouse, the Metzler guy said they had to cut out sometimes around 17 cm. No wonder the mouse did not fit. Tory also had the same problem and went back to Wolfgang, he was very helpfull, even when she went back several times.
It cooled down a bit around six yesterday evening, we hope we will keep the warm weather, the riders hope for some rain, the practice track is very dusty.
Today we have to do admin at 12.00 after that we will try to find some checks and maybe walk some tests.

Preparing bikes

Most of the Canadian Team arrived yesterday in Morelia. We had a 2.5 hour delay in Amsterdam and could not catch the connecting flight to Morelia and had to spend the night in Mexico City (costs were for KLM). All riders are in and were working on their bike today. Ali rented a used KTM 300, she new the bike was used, but there was so much wrong with it when Patrick took it apart, they asked KTM for a replacement bike, She got one, a 450 KTM. Hopefully she will manage on this big machine. Karine got some help fron Metzler Wolfgang with changing here rear 19" tire, Wolfgang was able to help her and get the tire on.
The weather is wonderful, lots of sun shine, nice and warm, first thing we did today was buy some sunscreen, a little bit to much sun made our skin nice and red yesterday.
The site of the impound area is very nice, on top of a hill. close to a shopping mall, unfortunately the mall is still being build on so no shopping, we found a nice coffee shop that servers great coffee and good sandwiches. The view from the balcony of the mall is great you can see the whole city. The traffic in the city is nuts, everybody is racing.

ISDE 2010

All different ISDE this year, no Thropy Team, a women team That is great! no support for the coordinators. It is all still feeling a bit strange. We will see what happens in 6 weeks time.