Matera

Crossodromo Nicola Staffieri in Matera carries a name, not an abbreviation: it is run by Motoclub Città dei Sassi, listed as category 3, dirt surface, 1200 metres long. The directory shows it as open daily but says in the same breath that you should phone ahead. On site there is a bar, cold showers and 220 V sockets - no hot water and no floodlights. Access runs through a UISP membership. 1200 metres of loam in Basilicata means, in practice, that the track changes more over a day than the map suggests. Ride the first session as a deliberate survey and note which corners are forming ruts. Only then decide where you actually invest your time - otherwise you spend the afternoon working a line that existed in the morning. The problem that catches nearly everyone on this ground: the front knifes and oversteers in the ruts. Top of our cause list is a fork that is too soft, riding too deep and folding into the rut - add compression.