La Bañeza MXGP

La Bañeza is a place I’ve wanted to come for a while, mainly because of the historic motorcycle street race that it has every year which to me looks totally insane, yet very festive, lots of fun and the town obviously loves its motorbikes.

When I saw it on the MX calendar I instantly decided on making the trip down to Spain to see what it was all about and I was kind of hoping the street race would be on at the same time but that’s not until August, oh well, World Motocross is more than worth it.

The La Bañeza MX track was right next to the town, I’ve personally never seen a MX track anywhere near a village let alone right next to a sizable town, the nearest homes were right on the doorstep of the entrance to the event and they had the pleasant  noise of 4-stroke MX bikes on the rev limiter all weekend.

According to the MX pro’s, the track was a bit on the small side and difficult to pass, for me looking at it from a non pro perspective meant I could easily get around the track, see lots of it from various vantage points and it had plenty of jumps which I like, but I’m no MX pro – obviously in saying those comments!

Around 16,ooo +turned up on race day to watch the best in the business go at it for 40mins + 2laps, and as we know the Spanish love their motorcycle racing and even though they haven’t got a fellow countryman at the head of the field (Unlike MotoGP & WSBK) they still made as much noise as possible and had a party regardless.

The sun was blazing all day long, and yes, being a white skinned Brit meant I got burnt and I’ve now serious tan lines (more red than tanned) and when I removed my t-shit I still look like I’ve got one on, plus a nice stripe across my red burnt forehead from my cap, very stylish.

It was a colorful weekend that was enjoyed by many and I loved the dirty fun, passionate fans and seeing the best in the business whipping their machines sideways over every jump and landing it perfectly every time like it was the most natural thing, astonishing.

The Red Bull Teka KTM Factory team came away with top honors in both the MX1 & MX2 as the young and very impressive German Ken Roczen (MX2) and the current World Champion (MX1) Italian Antonio Cairoli rode outstanding races to claim the overalls in their classes.

Anyway, below are loads of photos from the weekend, yes I know I got a bit trigger happy but I hope you enjoy them all the same.

Tomorrow I’ll be heading off on the Yamaha Super Tenere towards Erzberg in Austria for the Erzberg Enduro, 35 kilometers of rugged, gnarly, dangerous motocross racing on the iron mountain, again it’s only something I’ve seen footage of on the internet and I can’t wait to see it in person. As I travel I’ll be on the look out for some more incredible biking roads so that I can share them with you and hopefully you travel on one of them one day yourself…on a motorbike of course!

MX Gear: www.alpinestars.com

MX Official site: www.motocrossmx1.com