Good Times at The Cathedral, 2011 Assen TT (Rossi exclusive snaps :)

Assen was a blast, as was the stop over in Bruges/Brugges on the way home. We had mixed sun and showers on the 400 mile journey there, grey and drizzle at the races in Assen, baking hot in Belgium, mother of all rain storms on last bit of journey back home on UK motorways. When I say the mother of all storms I mean 20 meter visibility, hail, 2 inches standing water, multiple lightening forks across the horizon, Gatwick airport brought to standstill, some poor soul in a crane killed at the Olympic Park.

Practice day and race day were given extra icing on the cake due to VIP Paddock Passes (thanks and love to my bro-in-law,and his friends who kindly sorted it for us. Hope Senor N is back to good health). Managed to play paparazzi for a laugh, and waited 20 mins for a 20 sec fly-by from Valentino Rossi after his disappointing practice session. It was straight into the trailer, but he smiled and waved on the way.

We were in with a great crowd on the same TT trip package and had a laugh at the hotel and on trip to the Assen street parties on the Friday night. Retired pretty early though as not getting any younger and was still feeling theAs mu! Old aircooled Multistrada, or if I could afford it I would love the KTM 990 SMT. As usual Mrs Cutter was up to every challenge on her 695, but no fairing meant 80mph was the maximum cruising speed on our 800 mile round trip.

Assen TT coincided with a Yamaha anniversary of 50 years in GPs, and they brought along some legendary bikes and riders (Phil Read, Ago etc)... The old bikes are uber cool and were so beasty they had to be locked up:

Here's what they sounded like when they were set free:

When the 125's finish this year that will be it for two stroke noise and smell. Still Moto3 could be cooking - the new Honda Moto3 bike was on show in the paddock:

   
Here's a shot of Simo in the pit lane, one of the occasions when he was shiny side up. The guy needs some luck and to calm down a bit and then he will clean up.... If he can do it maybe he's the next Rossi, maybe a Senna for the biking world (see that movie BTW).

We went with a MotoExpress package which meant a nice hotel and coach laid on to practice and race day, so a few beers could be consumed during the day as well as in the evening. Others on the trip were all really friendly, open, great people (as is so often is the case with bikers). Hope the friends we made all got back home safe and sound.

Don't need to say much about the results, Cheered Bradley's podium on noisely in the Paddock Bar, (which is directly on pit lane entrance, overlooks start finish straight and has view of chicane), over Dutch rave oom-pah music.

Watched Simo and Lorenzo collide from Strubbel grandstand for the main race. Bad luck for Crutchlow, and Ducati still struggling. Mugello on TV today - fingers crosssed - ho hum. Back on topic of the next post.