The WEC Spain 2008

When you chat to your better half about going on holiday you never expect to hear “lets go to a round of the World Enduro Championships.” So when this happens don’t ask any questions just book it! So flights and accommodation were booked and off to Spain for a week with Jenny and baby Luke. The venue, Sitges – Spain. And for those of you who don’t already know, this town is apparently the gay capital of Europe, so it’s a strange place to have a round of the WEC with all those macho biker types!

Anyway we arrived on the Wednesday and settled into the apartment and later headed into the town which was a short walk away and less than 5 minutes to the extreme test which was situated on the main promenade and parc ferme was about a 20 minute walk at the other end of the town. The extreme test was nearing completion and although it didn’t look as tough as some you may have seen on TV or DVD, it was a good sceptical seeing this in the middle of what is a busy holiday sea front resort.

By Thursday afternoon all the trucks and vans had rolled into town and the tents and work areas were being put up and final adjustments being made to bikes. Among them were Nick Craigie and his TM Electractioin team from Ireland, which is made up of Gordan Clarke, Philip McLoughlin & Ewan McConnell who had all just driven across Spain from the WEC in Portugal. Setting up camp themselves they were all looking forward to a good weekends racing mainly as the weather forecast was very good in contrast to the previous week in Portugal where it rained most of the time and from speaking to Gordon was a really tough event pushing even the top riders to their limits just about getting into the checks on time all weekend.

The main thing that I noticed when I dropped up to see the lads on Thursday evening was that all the other teams had packed up for the evening and were nowhere to be seen. The lads were the only ones still working on their bikes and it was nearly 9pm. When I asked Nick if this was normal he said, “Ya, this is Irish style getting ready”. Even angle grinders were up and running at this late hour making “minor” adjustments to the bikes. The following day when I asked Nick what time they wrapped up at he said it was close to 1am.

Friday afternoon with the bikes ready and lunch had, you could see nerves and anxiety starting to hit camp and you just keep out of the way and leave them to it. When I asked Nick if I could get him, the lads and bikes lined up for a quick photo I knew I was pushing my luck but I asked anyway. Ewan gave the most resistance mumbling something like I’m sick of photos, if it’s not TBM feck it. My reply was no not TBM, even better, the TORC web site! I don’t think he was impressed. Scrutiny opened at 2pm and final adjustments were being made to ensure that the bikes passed the sound test that had been giving all the lads some trouble in Portugal.

Near the very front of the queue Ewan was the first into Scrutiny. The FIM official who was in charge and who was nick-named Santa Clause, because he has a full head of white hair and a beard just like Santa but also because he’s a bit of a joke for all the hassle he usually gives the lads, stood up from his seat and started instructing the two officials doing the sound test on how to do the test? Why didn’t he do this before now you wondered? So Ewan failed the noise test, which was no surprise to him or the rest of the team. On top of that there was a problem with the paperwork for the bikes. At this stage I had a five-month-old baby screaming for a feed so we left them to it and headed back to the apartment. It’s amazing how She who must be obeyed quickly turns into Child who must also be obeyed… That evening we dropped back up to parc ferme to see how things went. The bikes were lined up ready for action all problems sorted out!

Final task of the day, quick trip to the airport and pick up Chris (Matthews) and his girlfriend Elaine.  And I guess this would be a good time to say congratulations to the both of them as they have just got engaged and will be getting married later this year. Well done Elaine, thought you would never make an honest man of him!

Murphy’s Law! After a long night up with Luke, for the first time in years I sleep in. It’s 8.45am and the first bike is off a 9. Throw on yesterdays cloths, jump into the car, blame Chris as he was awake looking a the ceiling all along and we get there for 9.05am and just in time to see Gordon and Ewan head off… The start was off the beach up a double set of steps. The lads were winding Ewan up saying he couldn’t jump and clear the second set. So he had to try it, but with such a short run landed on the ramp on the second set of steps putting two holes in it. The FIM official, Santa Clause, was watching all of this and had a rather large grin on him. You just wondered was he grinning at the fact that Ewan tried to clear the steps and didn’t or was it because it now gave him the opportunity to give Ewan more hassle? As Philip was racing in the Junior Class he wasn’t off until after 10am so we headed off to the Special tests…

The first test we went to see was the MX test. The first bike hadn’t arrived yet and all was calm in the morning sunshine, it was already 20 deg C and would later be 26. Happy days seeing as it was in contrast to the snow back home that weekend. The amazing thing about being at the test was the fact that there were no restrictions on where you could go to watch. Stand anywhere you want at your own risk! We were in the middle of the track at two of the biggest down hill jumps I had seen at any MX track. It was now clear why there was a big discussion on Thursday night after the lads walked the tests. To jump or not the jump, that was the question! You could easily break a bike up jumping these babies. The first of the bikes to come through were the E3’s and most of them were jumping both and only a few where giving the first which was the biggest a miss. Just to prove Nick right, who was worried that the bikes would end up the worse for ware, Ewan brought his weekend to an end on his last MX test on the Sunday when he jumped both and lost five or six spokes in the front wheel. It was an early flight home for him.

Once we saw all the bikes go through we then headed for the Enduro test, which was at a vineyard about a 20-minute drive away. Over the two days this drive proved to be more dangerous than standing in the middle of the tests. There were so many bike on the road following the race and every bend in the road that you went round God only know what you were going to meet. Later that day we found out that the race had been held up for a while as the police had to close a road after some one on a road bike, we assume following the race, had a bad accident and died from their injuries.

At the Enduro test we headed to one of the main technical area of the course. Again we were in awe at how quick these guys can go! They were all quick and the test times were only a difference of seconds between the fastest and slowest riders. After watching here for a while was walked the rest of the Enduro test backward to see what it was like. It wasn’t very technical and very fast! You just don’t appreciate the speed they go when you watch it on TV. Watch it in real life so close to the action and when its finished pick you jaw up off the ground and go home!

It was then back to the town of Sitges and we meet up with the girls for lunch and then down to the Extreme test for more jaw dropping action. That was Saturday over with, we just had to do it all again on Sunday! I know, it’s a tuff life but some one has to do it…

So if you get the chance to go over to Wales for the British round we would highly recommend it and if at all possible bring a road bike so you can get to and from the various tests. They usually have a timetable letting you know when the riders will be at each test so you can plan your day around seeing the best of all the action.

Go to http://we.abc-wec.com/cms/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1 and check out the results.

Check out the photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/torcireland/WECSpain2008