I woke up early on Tuesday morning, in time to verify I'd packed up all my gear, and quickly ran downstairs to meet the rest of my team - who were already in the van and ready to get to breakfast - 15 minutes early! A cappuchino and some cheese and we got on the road towards Firenze, and the airport. Naturally, we got lost, but just a little. Italy's largest bike mag, [URL="http://www.motosprint.it/moto/indexRivistaMotoSprint.asp]Moto Sprint[/URL] (also a weekly), debuts on Tuesdays, so everyone picked up a copy to see the pictures from the past weekend and relive the glorious race. The main group left for Madrid, in order to start preparing for the Spanish National race this weekend in Jerez, but two of us stayed another hour+ in the airport waiting for our flight to BCN. Turns out it was a crowded flight! KRSR, KRJR, Chris Vermulen, Hiro Aoyama, and a host of mechanics and workers from the paddock were also onboard. I had some cool talks with Chris, who lives in Andorra - alongside Gary McCoy, and Hiro and I opted to share a cab back to his apt in BCN. Once there were ran into his brother, Shuuhei, and also 125 KTM rider, Julian Simon, who excitedly started telling me to check out Solo Moto (which coincidently also arrives on Tuesdays). Page 59 - Yee-Hah, baby! Big ups to Jaime Olivares (photographer) and Manuel Pecino (editor) for making this happen. I like to think this was their way of following my adventures and saying, "Welcome" to the World Championship.
Several of you have mentioned I should be working on a book, movie, or just plain something, but with all that I've got going on, it's a little too much at this time. While I wouldn't be opposed to a Disco Channel thing, I just don't think there's enough interest. I do think this would make a killer article in RRX, and I've got the photos to make it really sparkle. If this is something you'd like to see happen later this year, I encourage you to take a few minutes and email
Chris Jonnum, editor of Road Racer X , and put MotoLiam in the title. Also, please write a little - what you'd like to see, possible questions, and be sure to add your location in the country so that we can see that this isn't just a Bay Area thing.
I took Hiro out for a fantastic pizza and lambrusco lunch to say thank you for the help in Le Mans, and later in the week we celebrated again with some salmon at my favorite little restaurant, Sazzerack. Hiro, and the rest of the boys, are very happy for me, and we arranged to train and celebrate this weekend - but that's another story, and I don't have the photos yet from the fiestas. I'll try and get the photos soon, because we all know that the next couple weeks are going to be killer!
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