Participation to the Milano - Taranto motorrally in Italy, July 2007 (you can click on most pictures for full size)
Paestum to Castrovillari, 257km and onwards 302km to the hotel The finish on this day was in Castrovillari, but after we had to ride another 45km’s to the hotel Spezzano
Albanese Terme. (Terme is an Italian word for water springs). The hotel had a few extra buildings and the whole complex
was built on a steep hill. The rooms were simple, but clean and this time, I had to share the room with both Jan and Lex.
No problem. The room looked a bit to what we call an apartment in Dutch, as it had an extra kitchen and bathroom.
According to Lex I was cutting down a complete forest that night (snoring my head off), but he sounded like an English
single with side valves!!
Donuts upon arrival
A bite before getting the hotelroom key
Ambulance crew who accompanied us
Our room was in this building
Mostly dinner started at 20.30 or 21.00 hours. Outside near the swimming pool the tables
were lined up. There was a live singer and later we were surprised by the performance of a dancing couple. He looked like
Prince, the middle part of his trousers was dangling down his ankles. Very cool indeed. His female dance partner had a
very short skirt. They could really dance well. A few motorcyclists from our crowd were called on the dance floor and
fortunately they could also dance very well. Fortunately, I was seated just far enough from the dance floor, so the
chance I was pulled on the dance floor was low, Uufffff....
The pool
Dancing, look at the skirt
Fortunately this Swiss rider (Triumph Scrambler) could cope well
Left-to-right: Maud, Hendrika, Annet, Janette
Left-to-right: Janette, Nel, Joop
Left-to-right: Lex, Jos, Marijke
Few pictures of 2 remarcable sidecars
Benelli 500 quatrocilindri with sidecar (1978). The young girl in the sidecar
sat on her knees for 2,000km's
Gilera SS 500cc (1934), registered in Monaco
The men of team Tuzi helped the Italians back on the road after a brakedowns
Bad starting The next morning our last ride would bring us to our destination for this week: Taranto. But there was a small
problem: my bike would not start. Again, I cashed quite a few penalty points. Normally, I would start the engine 5
minutes before I had to leave. This was possible, because my motorbike really started well during the week. First or
second kick and the engine would fire up. But now, I could kick as much as I wanted, without any result and I saw black
liquid dripping from the joint between the pipes from the cylinder to the exhaust. I never experienced this before, but
Lex told me the engine had been flooded. At night I had left open the tap for the spare-fuel, stupid of course. Next, we
took out the spark plugs and run with the bike in second gear to blow out the petrol from the engine. Meanwhile, Jan
cleaned the sparkplugs with a dry cloth and a special brush. Spark plugs were placed back and Lex sat on the bike and
after pushing a few meters downhill, the bike fired up with a large bang and a cloud of black smoke from the exhausts.
Immediately after this, the bike runs fine again. But all this fuss resulted in 7 minutes late at the start. Even more
penalty points.
Final stage from Spezzano Albanese Terme to Taranto, 260km In the morning we stopped at the beach in Lido di Metaponto, but in our leather outfits it was difficult to cool down.
I stayed in the shade as much as possible and at each stop I drunk at least 2 or 3 bottles of water. Disadvantage of all
this water is that it all has to out again. But that's much better than getting heat stroke!
Lido di Metaponto on the beach
We had lunch in a kind of old farm. In the past, this large complex was used in many ways. As a farm, but also for storage
of crops and wine. Something very nice to eat were the toasted rolls, drowned in olive oil and covered with very tasty
pieces of tomato. Once you have tasted these, you never like the ones from the supermarket.
The "farm"
"Bruschetta con pomodoro" (toasted rolls with tomato). Very nice!! See the recipe
at the bottom of this page
Another photo of this very nice food
Thick walls
and some smoked a pipe ....
On to Taranto After we stuffed our bellies, we rode on for the "grande finale" in Taranto. It was not that far. Re-fuelled for the
last time, just to make sure I would make it to our destination without further hassle. On the border of town we were met
by motorcycle police and escorted to a square where we stopped. This was about 1km from the official finish. Kees told me
that from here we were lined up according to our numbers. This last kilometre went over the boulevard Vittorio Emanuele in Taranto.
It is the same boulevard where the finish was of the famous Milano-Taranto race in earlier days. We had to go, as fast as possible
and at the end there was the official black/white finish flag. Kees also told me that there was not much room to brake at the end of the
boulevard, so I included this in my top speed run. I gave the bike full throttle, "a tutto gas" in Italian, but also used the brakes in time to not
run into the public.
Have a look the stickers on the traffic signs; Taranto not too far
Taranto, made it!! Short brake on a square immediately before racing the last kilometre
on the boulevard
At the end of the boulevard, there was an official with the finish flag of the GP. The end of a fabulous
trip of 2,105km’s (1,308 miles) right through Italy. On the large square after the official finish, there was a spontaneous
party by the Italians who had made it. All participants were really, really happy that they had made it. An Italian
Morinisti (Moto Morini T shirt & flag) came up to me and congratulated me in Italian. Next he wanted to know all sorts of
technical details on my bike. He spoke no English, I speak no Italian, but his questions were clear to me, like my answers
to him :) There wasn’t too much time to talk about my Moto Morini Tremezzo (three-and-a-half), as the crowd headed for the
hotel in Massafra. We had passed this town earlier and now went back as our hotel was located there. The Italian organisation
was superb the whole week, but now things nearly went wrong. There were a few riders at the first square before the boulevard
who had trouble starting up their engines. They were forgotten for the trip to Massafra and never saw the official finish
flag. Next, the trip to Massafra was a bit chaotic. At some stage the group turned right at the wrong point. Meanwhile the
forgotten lot had their engines running, but the crowd was gone. They did not know where to go, but fortunately an Italian
car driver escorted them to
the hotel! Finally the large crowd of motorcyclists reached Massafra. The first thing the
Dutch participants did was to load the truck with the bikes and the Messerschmitt cycle car. The truck would start it’s
journey to the Netherlands at 01.00h at night. Soon as the truck was loaded, we collected our hotel keys and took a shower.
Just made it through the finish (white helmet, straight under the lamppost)
Congratulating Floor and Roel (77). Notice three German owned Morini's: 89, 90, 91
The official finish at the end of the boulevard in Taranto
Party of a Vespa team
Crowd on the square, after the official finish
My Moto Morini 3½ Touring from 1973 has covered the 2,105km without any problems
4 Condor men. I have rounded them up: left-to-right 83-84-85-86 ;-)
Outside the hotel loading the truck
First the dinner, ....
........
.... then the trophy's
Serious faces
Trophy's for left-to-right: unknown, Teus, Stefan, Tony
Cup & litho for all participants, the winners of each class received a larger cup, they earned it!!
print on the cup
In this story I have not mentioned some participants. I would like to thank them at this stage: Piet and
Annie, the efficient helpers in the yellow van. They helped the unlucky riders and first thing they did was to give them a
bottle of water. Also thanks to Lex and Jan of the white van and of course Erik. It was good to know they were behind us to
help us, in case of technical trouble (or lack of petrol, like in my case). Fortunately, I saw you lot only at breakfast or
dinner, but thanks anyway!!
Dutch participants to Milano-Taranto 2007: Cees & Annette, Jos & Hendrika, Jelle & Maud, Herman, Erik, Teus & Riet, Cees, Roel, Marc & Nel, Floor & Marijke, Tony,
Bas Jan, Niek, Henk, Rob, Joop & Janette, Joop, Ellis & Ria, Wim, Rik, Loek, Theo & Yvonne.
Technical and moral support by:
Lex, Jan, Pieter, Annie, Erik.
And many thanks to Jaap en Ellen, who efficiently organised our participation from "HQ Weesp".
Finally, I would like to thank Julian Kowalewski for correcting my English.
Back home! Watch the bike: the dirt of Pescara still on it!
Recipe of "Bruschetta con pomodoro" (toasted rolls with tomato) (Thanks Fabio!)
You need:
Small tomatoes, they should be "maturati sulla pianta", or "ripe from the tomato plant". Preferably use the tomatoes
that the Italians use to make the tomato sauce, they are different from those they use to make the tomato salad. Or you can
use the small tomatoes ("pomodorini");
"Pane di campagna", country bread which comes in ½ kg or more, preferably 2 or 3 days old, or alternatively
use bread for the toaster or american sandwich. It’s better if it's not too white (made with wholemeal flour). If you
have not got either of this, use "panino", which is a French baguette;
Mozzarella cheese. Not really necessary, but very nice to add to the bruschetta.
Please note, good bread is important for the Bruschetta.
This is how you do it:
Toast the bread (it is better if the bread is two or three days old) on the barbeque. Obviously if you can’t or don’t
want to use the BBQ, you can use the toaster;
After the toasting is done, you can put the tomatoes over the bread. If you want, you can scrape the tomato on the bread,
in this way the tomato juice soaks into the bread;
After that you can soak the bread with “extra vergine” olive oil;
Now you can add salt at your choice;
You can add a slice of mozzarella cheese on the plate
.
Ready!!
About the oliv oil
In a region in Italy called Puglia, they have a very good olive oil. In Italy, like the wine, there are very different kinds
of extra vergine olive oil, every region has it’s own. For example in Puglia the olive oil often has an artichoke flavour.
The sun of the south of Italy makes the difference with the olives and the tomatoes. But the best way to test the oil is with
bruschetta without tomato just a slice of toasted old country bread.
Recipe of "Bruschetta con pomodoro"
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