Tech in

Hot day yesterday at impound, the boys walked tests early in the morning, prepping their bike for tech in later that day. We went up for sign in at 13.00 took some time but went through smoothly in the end. Got some team pictures taken after sign in. Came out pretty nice. After pictures time for Tech in, some riders were a bit nervous about that. They did not have to be, I never saw Tech in go so fast as here in Greece. I wanted to take some pictures, but they all were through before I new. We cleaned out the garage and went for the pool at the hotel. Almost the complete Canadian delegation was in the pool enjoying the cool water. Had dinner at our favorit restaurant in town on the square and went to bed early. It looked for a while we would have some thunderstorms coming over, but they died out in the early evening. We, and also the ground here is ready to take some rain.
This morning we have to do some last things, do the shopping, prepare the ready room for check crew stuff. Jan and Mike are getting gas in their small rental cars and Lee is with the pre riders to check our day 5.
Hopefully we will have some spare time to do some toeristy things later this afternoon.
If you want to wish your rider good luck, please send an e-mail to vdyk.isdesupport@home.nl and we will make sure he will get the message. We will invest in a printer at impound so we can make a print rather than showing them on line.

pictures

Pictures from yesterday, my batteries of the camera died when I was uploading them to the computer.
We now got acces to internet in our garage, really handy.

Pre tech in nerves

We have to tech in tomorrow afternoon around 4. The original registration forms of the shipped bikes was missing, we even tried to make up fake ones. It was not possible to get insurrance for the bikes if we did not have the forms. Finally they turned up this morning around noon, 1 worry less.
Mike did a lot of running around today to get the insurrance ready for tech in. 4 riders tests this morning to give the other riders some room in the garage to get the bike ready and to give the Belgian riders a change to get their bikes ready in the garage too.
After 1 we had all riders in and the Belgians stayed outside in the burning sun working on their bikes. We are still trying to find out how they will solve the space issue we have now.
Everything is getting together finally for Team Canada. Team Australia was told their club container was still in Egypt and it will not arrive in Serres before next week. The American container is also still somewhere, they expect it at the latest tomorrow. After time keeping and rider meeting a late dinner again. There is a Carnival town it was very busy on the square with very loud greek music. Celebrated Larry Bastedo's birthday with cake and candle and a very good song for him.

Ready for testriding

Breakfast at 08.00 again, all riders seemed to be ready to start prepping the bike for the race. It took most of them longer than we thought to arrive at impound. Around 10.00 everybody was working on their bike. It was a zoo until 13.oo riders were ready building a bike and riding the test course. Scott crashed over a man hole on the test track and hurt himself he got a black eye, painfull elbow and knee, he will be pretty stiff in the morning I believe. After his crash they changed the course. Stephen was having fun with his new rental Gas Gas. He came back from his test ride with a big grin on his face. Great to see him relaxed and having fun. Had a support and riders meeting at 7.15. No major things came up. Went for dinner around 09.00 amazing to see how many people are going for dinner this late even the childeren are wondering down on the street. Again an adventures dinner, Lamb, chicken and pork from the grill. Very good with free deserts, melon en great rum cake. Now we are drinking some wine and Tequila Sunrise.

container arrived.

After breakfast we drove up to the impound and found out the container was supposed to arrive in 2 hours around noon. Knowing south european style we expected it to arrive late in the afternoon.
So we took our time talking to Metzler, australian friends etc. Trend and Scott picked up their rental bikes and started working on them in our own garage. It is very hot again today, around 35 C we are all trying to get into the shade. Drinking lots of water. We decided to go for lunch around 13.00 we had to buy phonecards, and find a bank to get money. Very busy in town, no parking space, all one way streets. Luckily Lee put up a flag on the window, so people were very friendly and helping us out. Arriving back at impound the container just arrived. They unloaded it from the truck and we were ready to unload. It took 45 minutes to unload the container with 6 or 7 strong man. Craig started working on the bike right after unloading. Several riders were walking tests today, and were very surprised the hear the container was unloaded already. After the introduction meeting we went to dinner with a group, very good and lots.

No container

Arrived this morning around 05.00 after a long fleight and drive. Luckily we could pick up or rental right after we arrived on Thessaloniki airport. Slept in the car for a 2 hours and had breakfast at the hotel at 08.00. Drove up the the impound area, finding out nothing had happened there. There was a road racing race yesterday, they started building the Six days area this morning. No containers yet, only the vendors were are ready for service.
Canada got a garage appointed for the service area in the evening. Talking to the Aussies, the garage is not very spacious. They were trying to find a bigger space. We expect the container to arrive tomorrow morning, so we can start work on the bikes. Impouding is already on Thursday, lots of work still to do. The weather is pretty steamy, around 30 C at the hotel, down at impound it will turn even hotter.

On our way

Left home yesterday, spend a night in a hotel in Amsterdam, enjoyed it very much.
We are now killing some time in Zurich, almost 7 hours before we head on to Thessaloniki, were we will arrive around 02.00 in the morning. Wait for the rental car and than on our way to Serres.