Torchiarolo - Valesio

Valesio near Torchiarolo in the province of Brindisi is run by the moto club of the same name: 1500 metres of dirt, FMI homologated but classed category 4 - the lowest of the grades used here, and an honest hint that what you find is a practice track rather than a race arena. No fixed opening hours are published, so the rule is: phone first. Bar, showers, power and floodlights are entirely absent. A venue without infrastructure forces you to organise yourself, and that is not bad practice: water, tools, fuel and a plan for what you want to do better today than yesterday. Without that plan a free practice day quickly becomes one hour of riding and two hours of talking. On loamy ground the same problem lies in wait as everywhere in Puglia: the front knifes into the rut and oversteers. Our cause list leads with a fork that is too soft - it dives too deep, so add compression before you start doubting your body position.