56. Renties Ypres Rally Belgium 2021

[MentalParadox]

We had only one encounter with Michèle. No walking on the stage 30 minutes before the start. I'm always very compliant because it goes quicker that way. Once Michèle is gone, in your case over the bridge, it's back to plan A. There are 10-15 minutes left after she's gone. It's quite a silly job if you ask me. I hope you didn't actually leave the stage!

Marshalls and police were okay around us. Marshalls are volunteers and there's a lot of difference in their judgment and form of authority. Today on the parts of the real stages around Spa we could do whatever we wanted. Yesterday we had some Dutch marshalls who forbade people crossing the road to go to their car to get to the next stage. Police came to get the identities of those who did. Ridiculous. Marshalls and police tend to get crazy if there are many spectators, they feel challenged and/or something just happened (Katsuta's crash in this case). There were police officers from far away with no experience with rally. I translated something for an officer because she couldn't speak French (ridiculous as well), and after that they hung around and made some cellphone videos. Most marshalls were very okay.

So yeah, you win some, you lose some. But if the organisation tells you that you can stand anywhere on the stage at 10 metres (except the forbidden zones), then you're entitled to do that. Yes sir, yes ma'am, but after you're gone, I'm doing what I want. Of course I've seen spectators in very stupid spots as well.

I left the stage, as she ordered, and positioned myself in a nearby field with plenty of other people. Seconds later after Michèle left, hordes of other spectators went back on the stage in the direction I wanted to go. Damn me for being so obedient...

"I translated something for an officer because she couldn't speak French (ridiculous as well)..."
Why ridiculous? Ypres is in Flander and people in Flanders speak Dutch. The only cops who need to speak French in that area are the French cops across the border in Westouter-Boeschepe. I saw that Katsuta crash happen on the horizon, by the way. We were about a K up the stage from that point. The ambulance drove by us and it got me pretty worried for Taka.

"Yesterday we had some Dutch marshalls who forbade people crossing the road to go to their car to get to the next stage. Police came to get the identities of those who did. Ridiculous."
I assume Flemish marshalls, because I don't see why there'd be Dutch cops in Belgium, the Netherlands being quite far away. Yeah, the field I was forced to stay in was separated from my car by the stage... Two cops showed up and started booking people who tried to cross the road. I needed to move on to the next stage (well, noon service in Ypres) so I had no choice but to wait until they were distracted, jump across and hide in a corn field until I was sure they stopped chasing... Quite the adventure, rallying...