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.