Le Mans 24 hours here we come (but the weather is not looking good)

Well it is almost time to head north for the wonderful Le Mans 24 hour motorcycle race. Of course the car race is more famous but I much prefer 2 wheeled racing so bikes for me! The car race uses the full circuit so some national roads must be closed, whereas the bike race uses the short track.

The plan is fairly simple: I head north and Barnes heads south and we meet in downtown Le Mans where I have booked a room in a lovely looking Best Western hotel the Le Prince. So what could possibly go wrong, I hear you ask. Well quite alot really.

Firstly the French have been striking violently recently against Macron and his pension reforms and one of the first things they blockaded were the fuel refineries. Indeed twice over recent months I have travelled through France and seen many service stations without fuel even on the motorway, luckily my Vito can cover the distance between the south and the north of France (about 860 km from Chamonix to Calais) on a single fill up so I carried a 10L jerry can of diesel on board just in case. Whereas a motorbike can generally cover only 200 kilometres between fuel stops and one does not wish to carry spare petrol on board.

Secondly as the fuel situation seems to be improving the weather has started to play up and in Italy we have had a very cold few days as well as heavy rain and storms. So perhaps I must travel north by van. I have 1900 km to cover between my garage in Tramonti and the hotel in Le Mans so I don’t really fancy battling through rain and cold to be honest.

So I will prepare a bike and the van tomorrow and then on Tuesday I will decide. C’est la vie indeed, as the French say.