Mike asks “why all the rain?”
I really slept bad last night, maybe was cause I went to sleep WAY later than my normal time (around 11:15pm), and still was on a bit of a high from the day yesterday. There was this rude Dutch Mosquito who fancied some foreign nibbles – ME, thankfully it pushed off after few swats at it, I guess it needed to go have a smoke or something so couldn’t be bothered with me. About 1am it started to rain and wasn’t just light it REALLY pissed down super hard, was thunder and lightning, went on what seemed like forever. I tossed and turned for ages and didn’t really feel like I got much sleep, woke up at 5:30ish. Tinkered online and then got up and had some coffee. Headed out just before 8ish. Got a few rolls on my way out as well as 2 Chocoladebroodje (were the same as Pain au chocolat) for E1.50 and chowed those while I walked to the station, they were really nice, they had just come out the oven so were still hot, ooooo – yummy !!!
Got the train quickly from Groningen to Assen Station at 9ish … OMG the queue for the bus was long. One bonus though, when I got to the counter I could see the tickets for today looked same as yesterday … so I made like was waiting for someone and didn’t buy one and just used the same one again – LOL, so saved E5 on that. Typical Currin saving money move. Traffic was terrible getting to the circuit as well. Got there eventually but only at about 10am. Went in the one entrance (as I wanted to have a wee there too, there were free places near the main entrance but not elsewhere, other places charged 50c to use the toilet) and then found I couldn’t go around inside like yesterday, had to go out and in another gate. Before I did that I looked over to where I wanted to sit and my jaw dropped, it was 100% packed. OH NO !!!! Went out and sped round the outside to the gate I needed to be at, was then a matter of finding a spot. I managed to get one, not as high up and as close to the corner as I’d have liked but wasn’t too bad. I guess I should have left a LOT earlier today or if only there was a bus lane this morning, oh well, easy to say in hindsight.
A lot of the day was a bit of a blur really. I didn’t take as many photos today for a few reasons. Mainly … the weather didn’t play ball at all. It was sunny to start with, I thought “let me put some suntan cream on” then I found I had taken it out with the spare camera battery (which I didn’t need today luckily) and a few other things but forgot to put them back in my bag. Stupid me. Wasn’t “too bad” as the clouds came over not long after, and then every 30min or so on and off for the rest of the day it drizzled. So was on/off with my rain jacket and up/down with my brolley. I had taken a plastic bag to sit on so my bum didn’t get wet, it was a bit sore now and then from the hard ground, but I didn’t bring anything for that, I should have maybe brought some sponge or something, again – hindsight.
Mike asks “why all the rain?”
Before all the races there was a stunt rider doing all sorts of cool tricks. Check out the following video to see the oke.
There were these sure rude people in front of where I was sitting. They just would never sit down, it wasn’t like they were trying to take pictures or something over the fencing they were just standing watching the whole time. This Dutch woman next to me asked them many times to sit, the one oke was quite rude back and just told her to stand up if she wanted to see past him (I could pick that much up). OK … but if she did that then it would be a ripple effect in the end and would piss the people off behind etc. So that was a bit of a downer for the day having to keep looking around those dicks to see what was going on, guess that’s the sort of things that come with General Admission tickets vs specific seating. I didn’t really leave my spot as didn’t know if I’d get another as well. Had some salami and cheese rolls from stuff I had taken with. Today, on entrance, they checked all bags quite thoroughly for booze, that was the only thing you weren’t allowed to take in.
These are the inconsiderate people (blue, maroon and while) the others were just standing at the time of the pic.
This is a panorama of where I was sitting (while it was still quiet, there was masses of people down next to the fence later on). Click on the pic (as you can with all of the pics) for a higher resolution version.
The weather really played havoc with the strategies and stuff of the teams and not knowing what tyre to be on and then having to change as the conditions changed. So all in all was a bit of a different race. Saw a few close calls and the odd crash but nothing too serious it seemed. Could see the big screen TV so that helped to keep track of what was going on round the other side of the circuit.
Moto3 First lap
South Africa is represented (by more than me) the flags were gone a while later so dunno where the people went to as wanted to go get a pic next to it
Marc Marquez in mid air during a quick bike change (obviously photo taken off the big screen)
Marc Marquez
Marc Marquez
Valentino Rossi
Marc Marquez shakes hands with Dani Pedrosa after the race
MotoGP Podium (1st: Marc Marquez, 2nd: Andrea Dovizioso, 3rd: Dani Pedrosa)
After the main MotoGP race I packed up my stuff and went to find a MotoGP Official Merchandise stand to buy something to have as a great memory from my time at the race. There were the stalls all round at regular intervals. I wanted a brown/grey TShirt, the 1st 2 places didn’t have the grey and if they did was in Medium. So I was going “against traffic” which took a while but managed to get to one that had the one I wanted in the colour I wanted so bought that. Cost me E20 but I am saying it cost me E15 (factoring in my station to circuit bus freebie from earlier in the day). I was maybe going to get the blue shirt but that was a bit of a bright blue so decided not to get that, the other options were white or black.
TShirt Front
TShirt Back
The bus back to the station took about 10min vs 1hr this morning, there was a dedicated bus/taxi lane and we just cruised along. I got on the bus without any queuing as well, maybe cause I had spent a while looking for my shirt the masses had left already, guessing. Got back to Groningen and booked my train ticket for tomorrow to get to Amsterdam and then wandered back through town looking at a few things here and there and then just headed home and streamed the SA vs Scotland rugby match, saw from midway through the 1st half. We beat then pretty convincingly, some really good performances.
All in all it has been a FANTASTIC experience attending the Assen TT. Something I will always remember. I must admit I think I actually enjoyed yesterday more than today due to the freedom I had to go all over and see everything, and more, than I could want.