Following the tragedy that struck Valencia on Tuesday 29 October, the Grand Prix MotoGP of the Valencian Community has been cancelled, and the last round of the season will take place on another circuit, in this case Barcelona-Catalonia,
Yes, but that doesn't mean we're going to turn the page and instantly forget Valencia and its unfortunate inhabitants, even though they welcomed us with kindness for years!
Valencia, Cheste where is the circuit, Chiva nearby for nightlife activities, Sweetness the airport, Bonaire the shopping center where many teams are housed, Alfafar where we have our headquarters during the Grand Prix, are names known to all French fans who have become accustomed to ending the MotoGP season under the Spanish sun which normally makes the famous oranges of the Valencian huertas tasty.
But this year, This region, which is the cradle of urban motorcycle racing in Spain, unfortunately takes on the unfortunate role of being the place most impacted by the incredible bad weather that devastated the West and South of Valencia.
The provisional death toll is 217, but this is probably not the final figure, which has provoked anger among residents towards King Felipe of Spain, who came to see the damage on site, while the authorities are criticised for not having given sufficient warning and for having delayed sending aid.
Yet, if everyone is aware of global warming, who could have predicted that 700mm of water would fall in one day, or the equivalent of a year of rain or almost ?
In 1957, Valencia already experienced a very large flood of the Túria, the river that crossed the city, causing 80 deaths, after which General Franco ordered the complete diversion of its bed by building a giant canal to the south of the city, the "Plan Sud".
We know the canal well, having passed it every day during the Grand Prix at the end of the season: Built between 1969 and 1973, it measures 11 kilometres, from "Quart de Poblet" to the Mediterranean, but above all it has a flow rate of 5000 m³/s thanks to its pharaonic width of several hundred metres.
Journal of Quantitative and Applied Spatial Analysis No. 38 & 39 – 1996 Mixtures Maurice JULIAN
Today, the old bed of the Turia is transformed into lush gardens near the City of Arts and Sciences…
From its creation until last year, we have always known the southern canal to be dry. Last week, it overflowed, flooding the entire southern suburbs of Valencia!
The tragedy is immeasurable, but perhaps we have escaped worse, because Valencia has the Forrata dam, in the municipality of Yatova, about twenty kilometers to the west. Also built on the orders of General Franco in 1969 to serve as a reserve for irrigation, it resisted the DANA (“Depresión Aislada en Niveles Altos”, isolated depression at high altitude, or cold drops) of last week, thus avoiding the destruction of the diversion of “Quart de Poblet” and the flood of its contents of 37 billion liters of water on the 820 inhabitants of the city… It makes us shudder, just at the thought worthy of a blockbuster!
Today, extremely united and courageous, the people of Valencia are still in the mud, searching for the missing (mainly in the underground car parks), and it was inconceivable that the Grand Prix could take place in these conditions, even if the circuit itself was ultimately mainly impacted by the destruction of its access during the disaster (see below).
But without even mentioning the material difficulties, it would have been odious to take the slightest pleasure alongside so much drama and misfortune, and the MotoGP riders have been exemplary in this regard, in particular Marc Marquez et Francis Bagnaia, the latter even announcing that he would not participate, even if it meant losing any chance of retaining his title.
"Valencia 2024" therefore takes on a sinister meaning, but we will not forget it, and we are already eager to return to the Valencian Community to contribute to its recovery. After all, we recognize it without hesitation, it is precisely thanks to this region of Spain that we are today passionate about motorcycle competitions...
