Today I will start my detour to go to the starting place of the European Tour 2016, the only real multi-day rally in Europe, this time organized by IBA UK. I do have unfinished business here: two years ago, at the European Tour 2014, I was in first place after the first leg and had an excellent second leg, when at the end of the fourth day, the gearbox of my BMW decided to initiate an irreversible, quick process of disintegration in the orange fields near Castelló de la Plana:

Breakdown place during the ET2014:$£%!”&?£!!!!

In the very second when I put the broken BMW on the main stand I had only one thought:

“That’s it! I’ve had enough!”

I never would ride a BMW again in rallies. The second time I dropped out during a rally in a virtual top position, the third time I needed a towing truck, countless problems with this bike. Finito. Aus, Epfe, Amen.

The statistics are very clear whether this decision was a good one: since that point, I rode 6 rallies with the new (old) Honda Pan European, came second once and won all other five rallies. Ah, and no technical problems whatsoever. No more questions, your honour.

I managed to be back at the rally finish in time, but not without a clear statement:So this time we meet again at the same place near Stuttgart. Rally check-in on Saturday, Start on Sunday morning. After 6 six riding days, we’ll arrive again in Stuttgart on Friday evening. Anything is possible, Ireland to Greece, Estonia to Portugal. More news on Saturday!

If you want to follow my GPS track from Sunday on, here is the SPOT link. I have set up an alternative track based on my phone which I run for experimental reasons. In both cases you’ll need a password that I’ll provide you if you drop me a short e-mail.