First things first though. Opportunists as we are we always let the government pay for our "advanced riding techniques trainings" (they help improve safety on the road. They do... Honestly...), so we ordered some "training cheques" from the Flemish government which pay for 50% of the fee. The second thing on the agenda was to find a place to spend the night so we could sleep in instead of having to get up at 5AM, ride the bikes to Croix and do the return trip the same evening. That would simply get me killed. Through a friend we got into contact with a nice English couple that ran a B&B at 3km of the track. A phone call and a confirmation email later we at least had the chance to arrive at the track with a fresh mind and a rested body.
The track day is on Monday, so Saturday we start with giving the bikes a good clean, which is always a good opportunity to give 'm the once over: chain, brakes, oil level, ... I pay special attention in degreasing the part of the frame above the foot pegs as the paint there is very thin and after 50.000km has now almost completely disappeared in the area where my ankles rest against the frame. Nothing a very cool carbon-look sticker can't fix.
We leave Sunday morning at 10AM for a relaxed ride on Belgian B-roads and French Departemantales. After a quick motorway blast to get us passed Brussels we dive into the region called "the Flemish Ardennes". Do not be fooled, it has nothing to do with the real Ardennes. The hills are more bumps than hills, but the scenery is nice and so are the roads. The tyres eat the kilometres quite well and we make a stop at Tournai for an early lunch on the lovely square in the historic centre of the town. The rest of the journey is nice but uneventful.
It is 3:30PM when we arrive at Croix and since we had told Sue and Paul of Les Ballastičres that we would only be arriving between 5 and 6 this gives us the time to go and have a look at the track already. We pull up and the first thing I notice is that this race track is of an entirely different category that the track at Folembray. It is longer, more technical and actually has some serious left-handers as well. Compared to Folembray the overview in the corners is far less. This looks like a serious challenge and the number of cars that goes off in the first few minutes we are watching confirms that the track is far from easy.
We hang around for a while, check out the other bikes that are parked near the track and start looking for the B&B.
After a few circles around the village and with the assistance of a helpful frog we ride the motorcycles into the centre court of the old "Square Farm". I haven't even removed my helmet and Sue and Paul are already out to greet us. The welcome is warm and cheerful and while I take the luggage of the bike I have a look around at the buildings. The old stables clearly still need some attention but main building has been done up very nicely. The bikes are parked inside one of the old stables and there is also a corner with all the stuff one would need to service the bike. The 2 Harleys in the shed further show the passion for biking these two people share.
Before anything else we take a refreshing shower and afterwards we get a fresh beer and a tour of the facilities. Sue shows us the dormitory (a.k.a. the indoor camping site), the communal showers and the toilets. All brand new and finished to a high standard (for only 15€/night). Anyway, long story short, we will definitely be coming back on our next visit to Croix.
I already hear you complaining, "start bloody telling us about how the TDM handles itself on the track". Ok, ok, just a little more patience. We get up around 7 the next morning and go down for a quick breakfast. After the croissants and the coffee Sue hands us our packed lunch and we're off. Not to the track but first towards the gas station at the Intermarché to make sure we can get through the day. After filling up we can finally make our way towards the race track. We arrive dressed as proper power rangers, back protector and all. Only the knee sliders are missing to make the picture complete
Some familiar faces welcome us warmly and after the hellos we get the paperwork out of the way and find ourselves some seats for the briefing. The RACE-group is nice and small, about 12 riders in all. That's 6 for each instructor! The first briefing takes us through all the bends in the circuit and lays out the ideal riding lines. We have some time after the briefing so we decide to go and have a look at how the free riders are doing. We haven't even arrived at the fence and we already hear that the first riders have gone off. The track was still very wet from the nightly showers and some guy on a GSXR lost his front when braking too hard at the end of the straight. Took a lovely RSV Mille with him as well...
After the incident and with the track so wet our first session is kind of hesitatingly safe, but that provides some more time to get to know the track better. For the rest of the AM sessions the weather stays as dreary and we are treated to some serious showers as well. So the rest of our exercises (riding lines, one gear-no brake, riding position) are still at a quite moderate pace. Especially the one gear as the water was streaming over the track at that time. The TDM does handle itself well but the true test wouldn't come until after lunch. A lot of the riders already pack up and leave at noon because of the weather, but boy were they wrong. The afternoon was perfectly dry and provided excellent riding conditions. We did our afternoon free riding sessions with 10 bikes so basically we had the track to ourselves. Which proved to be a great advantage as we had an instructor to ride a couple of rounds in front and behind us every session for some very personal feedback. During the first sessions there are still quite some remarks about riding position and riding lines. Apparently I didn't have the "monkey-hanging-of-the-bike"-technique quite down yet
It was starting to become necessary though as the TDM was more and more reminding me of the lack of ground clearance. But all in all it handled very well and show absolutely no problem keeping up with the true power ranger bikes in the corners. The straight was a whole different story though
Sofie was flooring it pretty hard as well on the FZ6 so there was no way I was keeping up in the straight and even in the corners I had a hard time catching up. It usually took me the entire round to get near again
But after 2 sessions on a dry track the confidence was building and the technique was improving vastly. Peronally I felt it was all going quite well, but I really had no idea how well that was actually. But after coming in to the pits the instructor that had been overloading me with remarks during the day gave me a big grin and a big thumbs up
Both the lines and the riding position were excellent, early on the throttle and I would have to get me some knee sliders for next time as I would definitely be needing them... Yeah right, like a proper power ranger on the TDM The TDM's front suspension wasn't bothering me as much anymore as it was on Folembray. Perhaps I am getting used to it but probably I also just dove into the first corner after the straight a little smoother on Croix. Excellent little circuit by the way!
Anyway, there is no reason why the TDM wouldn't be suited for the track, except than that it is my only bike, in fact my only motorized vehicle so I kind of really don't want to go off as I need it to get home. So Sofie and I are thinking about getting a cheap third bike for track use, something light and easy to maintain, like a SV650, Hornet, Thundercat or even a CBR600F. In any case we will be going back to Croix at the end of August for another RACE-training.
Enough of my ramblings, I'm off to bed now. Nothing to see here, carry on...
