After three and a half weeks either on holiday or in the Factory it was good to finally be back on a plane and heading out to race again. We left the UK in the first sunshine it had experienced for about three and a half weeks and landed in Madrid before the short hop to Valencia. We made it fine, but some of the baggage didn’t which meant delays in the airport and free Air Iberia washbags for several of our number: the curse of the Madrid Baggage Handlers strikes again.

Valencia is one great city. It still boasts the older Spanish buildings around the outskirts, it has the new architecture and bridges of the modern era, but its outstanding feature is the old town with its narrow streets, bars and restaurants which is where many chose to sample the tapas and red wine on our first night here. And it is good. The evenings start very late on, so restaurants are open until 2am and bars are open until, well, no-one’s ever been kicked out of on so no-one knows. And all this is fine and dandy if you can start your working day Spanish-style and have a two-hour siesta, but for those of us who have to work tomorrow it’s an earlier turn-in than the locals.

We’ve got trophies to fight for this weekend…

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