LEOD ESCAPES: TRACK RIDING DREAMS
Let Leod Escapes fulfil your track riding dreams: Laguna Seca, Mugello and more…
‘The focus is less touristy and more authentic than your average road tour, with more rewarding road riding’
What is track/road touring? Phillip Island’s Southern Loop or Laguna Seca’s Corkscrew are more than just names to a Motogp fan. Mugello’s Arrabbiata, the Marquez curve at Motorland Aragón, the Waterfall at Sachsenring – places where legendary riders have had epic moments, that most of us only saw on a screen. But what if you could ride there? What is a Leod Escapes Track & Tour?
It is a ten or eleven day motorcycle tour that includes one to three days of track riding on a famous Motogp circuit. The focus is less touristy and more authentic than your average road tour, with more challenging/rewarding road riding. How good do I need to be on track?
Riders range in skill from current professional racers to beginners. If at your local trackday you are a smooth intermediate rider or above then you’re ready. If you are a novice, practice your vision skills at high speed because a Motogp track is faster.
How do Leod Escapes’ tours vary?
The theme of all our tours is the same, but the unique flavour of each country makes every tour very different. The calendar is based on what we can arrange each year so tours come and go, which means there are new tours arriving every few years. For example… Italian Dream to Mugello: 2-12 June, 2020. We ride in the isolated worlds of Corsica and Sardinia and on Ducatis at Mugello. It’s ocean vistas and island twisties plus riding a Panigale on its home track.
California Curves to Laguna Seca: 22 June 22- 1 July, 2020. Still our favourite week of sport touring because of the wide variety of vistas and non-stop curves. Then spend two days taming the The Corkscrew with California Superbike School. Italy Full Throttle, Mugello: 20-30 July, 2020. A ride through a romance novel, but with amazing food. We ride off the beaten path to show you what Italy is all about. You’ll then train for three days with Troy Corser and master Mugello. And one of the many great things about Mugello is that Florence is nearby.
Sachsenring & the Italian Alps: late August/early September, 2021. Back on the calendar for next year. Our most authentic tour – we ride like locals, stay where locals stay and eat and drink like local riders. This tour is our top one for amazing sport touring twists and views. Sachsenring is the most challenging Motogp circuit we ride and the surface is flawless. This is a
good choice if you like to drink good beer at the end of your day’s riding.
Spanish Pyrenees to Aragón: 15-25 October, 2020. Ride across a forgotten empire, stay in a castle or two and get to enjoy three days training at Aragón, with Troy Corser. Pyrenean mountains, special hotels and great local guides make this tour a real winner. Australian Curves to Phillip Island: 26 October-4 November, 2020. Australia surprises riders with twisty passes through rainforests and gum trees, coastal runs, lots of fun critters and amazing food. There’s a reason Phillip Island is ranked as the number one favourite by most Motogp riders, it is that much fun.
How is the road riding? We choose riding that is exhilarating and off the beaten path – we can do this because track riders have more skill. The twisty thread of a road with insanely tight hairpins that no bus will ever see, yeah we go there. What’s often funny is many of these unknown gems have prefect pavement maintained, probably, by some fellow rider who sits on a road maintenance funding board. The added beneit of choosing these roads is you’ll ind yourself getting closer to the essence of the country you came to visit.
It’s not uncommon for our trackday junky clients to spend four days riding the twists with us, and then proclaim, ‘I came for the track but I could go home happy having just ridden the roads’.
What are the trackdays like? Our track riding days range from riding with the locals at a foreign trackday, to a dedicated track training program with an organisation such as the California Superbike School, or a manufacturer such as Ducati.
Motogp circuits are bigger, faster and the track surface is always amazing. Your track bike will always be a top quality machine that is well maintained and very likely less than a year old. The latest BMW S1000RR is the most common track bike followed by Panigales and R1s. Despite all this new excitement, a trackday is a trackday no matter where you are in
the world, the grinning faces, the smell of race fuel, these are your people. What street bikes are available?
We ride BMW GSS, S1000XRS or the R1250RS. In Italy a wide range of Ducatis spices up the possibilities.
What about food and hotels? We use three and four star hotels with a focus on character and comfort. We travel to ride but we ride to eat and to us food is part of the adventure. We seek to eat like the locals but that doesn’t limit us to traditional fare.
So good they keep coming back. Each of our tours is illed with 30% to 80% repeat business. Our clients enjoy what they do with us and they get hooked. Experienced tour operators know we can’t make people happy. All we can do is work hard to set the stage, so that magic moments can happen. However, we can’t take all the credit. It’s not just what you do, it’s who you share the experience with. Wanna go for a ride?