My Mugello nightmare

Me and the wife decided that after many years of watching our hero Rossi on TV, it was time to plan a trip to see him on home soil, before he retires.

Everything was in place – flights, hotels, car hire, tickets. All we had to do was get ourselves to the airport in time for check in which we did with an hour to spare despite the ungodly hour.

As check in time approached and our flight was still not showing on the departure board, I started to get a knot in my stomach. I shared this unease with the wife, who decides to seek help at an information desk.

She returned 15 mins later looking as upset as I’ve ever seen her so I knew all was not well. Apparently the flight was cancelled 2 months ago and they didn’t even tell us. Gutted like you wouldn’t believe.

But all hope was not lost as we were rebooked on a flight the following day which meant missing qualifing, but hey, we would still see the man himself on race day.

o, now sitting in a bar in Florence on Saturday night we started putting the dissapointment of the flight behind us, and began getting really excited about Sunday, race day!

Our really lovely American bar maid spotted I was wearing a Ducati shirt, and asked if we had been at Mugello to watch the qualifying.

“No” I said, “but we’ll be there tomorrow!” “Did you hear about Rossi?” she asks, “Nope” I said, unworried as I expected her to tell me he was on pole. What she said next will haunt me forever.

“He’s broken his leg” she said at which point I nearly choked on my Guinness. It sounds dramatic and over the top but I’ve never felt so gutted in all my life (oh, and neither has the wife).

Race day was good but should have been so much better. But there’s always next year, right?

The pic shows You can’t keep an MCN reader down for long!