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AUTUMN CLASSIC |
Claret & Classics in late June was for 25 years a set fixture on the calendar, but back in the 1990s a sister rally was instituted later on in the year. This later event, which when it started was normally in Spain, began as the Basque Classic, though in some years it was replaced by something else. In 2002 it moved into France when its place was taken by the Provencal, while in 2003 and then in 2005 the event returned to Spain, the first time in the area of the Picos de Europa, the second time on the high plains of Castile, visiting exceptional places like Salamanca, Avila and Segovia. In 2006, just to be thoroughly confusing, this autumn event was in both countries, starting with several days in the Cathar country near the old mediaeval town of Carcassonne, going on through the Principality of Andorra with all its tax-free goodies (plus its smog and its never-ending roadworks - nothing like as attractiveas I always imagined it was going to be) to a couple of nights in Spain, before coming back into France and ending up with two nights in the exquisite town of Biarritz with its even more exquisite Hotel du Palais, an experience very much to be recommended.
This later event in Autumn was always a bit more of a driver's run compared to the other one, with slightly more difficult country to get through, a little more up-and-down-ish (lesser mortals call this type of country "mountains"), in fact with a bit more thrashing about, to put it bluntly. Nevertheless, it was never one of those long-haul endurance marathon grinds, a white-knuckle ride driving for hours, even days, without a proper stop over long distances. There's nothing wrong with those events, but this is not one of them. This, like Claret & Classics, is done to old-style regularity rules, driving to a strict average speed where distances are not given (at all!), where all arcane and generally geewhiz machinery is banned, no Haldas, no Terratrips, none of the new-fangled and often expensive modern impedimenta which has taken some of the fun out of it all. Here you have to do it all for yourselves with good old-fashioned skill (remember that?), like it used to be. The advantage is that it does make things much more equal. Supposed experts sometimes get a nasty surprise when they haven't got all the modern equipment to help them out, and newcomers regularly do far better than they expected.
Oh, and when you are talking of this event, like all the others, there is still a certain amount of socialising as well, where you do have time to discover the delights of both French and Spanish eating and drinking, with dinner included most nights, and with more than a chance to re-discover the local red stuff. Or white, come to think of it. Or amber.
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Deeley Classics 50 Uphill Way Uphill Weston - super - Mare Somerset BS23 4TN England |
 Tel: +44 (0)1934 626136 Fax: +44 (0) 1934 626146 E mail: deeley.classics@virgin.net |
©2001 Deeley Classics Designed by Chris Shrapnel of Momentai Revised 23/9/01 |