Archive for January, 2011

Another day, another adventure!

Glenn called about 10.30 Argentina time. We were hoping to have some photos, but in the running around at bivouac in the evening, Glenn has misplaced his camera.

Once again the scenery was amazing, but the general community spirit here has been quite remarkable too. Days ago Glenn reported that there were problems with the lack of air conditioning in the truck, made worse by the heater being stuck on. Ambient temperature today was well above 30°C so yo can imagine what it was like with the heater huffing on top of that. Initially the crew managed to get the heater turned off and made do by repeatedly drenching themselves with water in the cab to keep cool. Later they found some other competitors in the rally able to re-gas the air conditioning system and put in a bypass valve for the heater matrix. The only catch was that the bypass is underneath the truck. No neat switch on the dash but considering it was all done by the roadside with a bunch of strangers it’s good enough! What made this more remarkable was the fact that they didn’t speak any english at all, so the whole collaboration was done with Glenn’s best “spanglish”, points, gestures and smiles. These guys had no reason to be that helpful, but such is the community spirit with Dakar – total strangers helping other strangers. Perhaps everyone just wants to keep their karma in check, but whatever the explanation it makes for a better experience for all.

The daunting mountains are now clearly in view on the horizon. There’s a heap of programmed maintenance tonight in preparation for the Andes crossing tomorrow, with a peak altitude of 4,800m. To give you an idea of just how serious the altitude is, there are medics stationed thought the transport with oxygen tanks, and a hyperbaric chamber for anyone with oedema. The transport is likely to take about 13 hours, and the crew were hoping to get under way by 4.00 am. However, the organisers are not allowing the support convoy to leave until the last car departs at 10.00am. The guys are dreading the prospects of more sleep deprivation, having never caught up from their long hours before the event started.

The riders had a mixed day.

Mark Davidson kept the bike straight but had a couple navigation issues. It was a solid day for him though finishing in 117th position.

Warren and Jacob also had navigation issues.

Jacob lost time going to waypoints that he was not required to hit (last minute changes to the route) finishing in 26th place. Warren was lead astray a couple of times following others rather than making clear decisions based on his road book but ended up 34th in the field. These sorts of things are the “traps for young players”, often catching out first time Dakar competitors. That’s the best explanation at the moment, but the guys are both picking working things out and up on all the rules as we expected they would. At one stage Jacob was running in the top 15 for the stage, only losing time badly in the later checkpoints.

It seems that plenty of riders were having issues similar problems and the wheel tracks, loops and u-turns left in the dirt after a few riders passed through would have made it all the more confusing for the riders further back in the field. In terms of riding ability Warren and Jacob are both proving themselves soundly. Up to this point all of the delays that count have been caused by human error, but they’re both well aware of their experience deficit here. This is how they learn. At this point the riders are all strong and the bikes are strong. They’re running to plan.

The crew are learning little tricks along the way too. Today’s realisation was that it’s best to find a toilet stop before they check in at the bivouac. Everyone is busting at the end of the day, generally to the detriment of the facilities provided at the overnight camps.

Tomorrow is going to be a massive effort. It will be a slow haul, made slower because the efficiency of the truck’s engine suffers just as much as the humans in the rarified air. The crew have been advised to stay in their vehicles going over the Andes to help reduce the effects of the altitude, but at some point they will need to get out to turn the heater back on. The riders won’t have that protection at all.

The crowd opens up to reveal the road.

In Glenn’s words this afternoon, “another crazy day”.

Mark Davidson had a decent crash today and did a small amount of damage to his bike, mainly with the navigation gear and handle bars. He seems OK and continued, but he did lose a large number of places to finish in 139th place and 01:15:58 behind the leaders.

Warren Strange did well and improved his placing considerably – 40th for the day, trailing by 00:23.59

Jacob Smith ran off the road in the dust at one point. The special was extremely dusty in places but he recovered and continued to gain places on yesterday’s finish – 20th for the day, 00:14:26 off the pace. The fact that he started 31st on the grid made his passage through the dust far worse with the intervals for the riders’ departures in that part of the grid were in 30 second brackets rather than full minute or two minute blocks. Everyone was bunched up heavily. Yesterday Jacob carved through the field, passing around 30 riders because they were very much slower than him. The 20 riders now in front of him are essentially all national champions and/or seasoned Dakar riders, so his advance will be slower from this point on. If everything goes to plan he should be able to pick one or two off per day but these are first two days have really just been the warm up and “sorting” stages of the race. Tomorrow has the first of the endurance specials. His frame of mind is very good at the moment. Although frustrated at losing another 14 minutes today, Jacob knows that we’re here to learn this year so he’s just taking it all in. He was always going to be held up by people because of grid position yesterday. He remains strong and fit, so is ready for the hard stages when anything can happen.

There have been a couple of little issues with the bikes now that the “race development” has been done with the new parts on board. The primary problem has been that the rear tanks soften with the fuel, the weight of the fuel and the heat, resulting in insufficient clearance between them and the tyre. A fix has been concocted to keep everything sorted in the short term.

Adjustments to the navigation gear on Jacob's bike.

The service guys are coping, but working very hard and coming up with solutions to debug the new parts on top of the normal service workload. They are spending time in the truck sleeping when they can. Many people in the bivouacs have been interested in the bikes because we have simplified many of the things normally hidden behind the fairings. Reportedly there is one other bike with a similar set up, but all the rest have big fairings. Mark’s crash damage would have been a far more complicated affair had their been a fairing and tower involved. There is more to fit on the bike than people realise, but going upwards doesn’t have to be the only answer. Some of the components that had not been developed by GHR have been particularly disappointing because of failures and breakages even without crashes – it’s all good research for doing thing better internally next time.

Max Sullivan's ingenious sleep aid to stop the noddies.

Simon just chooses the noddies.

Camp Hummer - Robbie Gordon's palatial service trucks and facilities were amazing, but cold comfort at the end of what had been a bad day.

More Hummers... He might be hiding a brass band in there somewhere too.

This is how a little team from Australia does it in comparison.

The crowd is something to behold and the atmosphere electric. All the crew have been stunned by the sheer quantity of human beings over here who appear to have dropped everything to watch the race. There were many kilometres of first gear running in the truck today, where the crowd parted to reveal the road ahead – almost offering their children and babies as they paid homage to anyone with anything to do with the race. What was really amazing was the fact that this these were just the service vehicles, not race vehicles. The fans don’t seem to care though. One thing that is startling is that in the space of 3km you pass an MCG sized crowd, then another and another. The Dakar and its fans completely dwarf any sporting event of any kind or code in Australia. The crew would have passed a million people already. At the time Glenn called it was 10.30 his time but there were still hordes of people outside the compound looking in. He said he felt like a monkey behind the fence being studied by 10,000 people.

Crowds like this go for miles...

At times, it was 1st gear going only, through masses of elated spectators.

Mark Davidson making friends on the outside of the bivouac perimeter.

Another truck flying the Honda flag, passed in the service convoy.

The go-anywhere trucks of the organisers.

Much of the landscape here could easily be parts of the Australian outback.

A heavy band of rain passes by the truck.

View inside the bivouac compound.

Stage briefing.

Tomorrow will be a big day with 231km of liaison and 521km of special stage en route to San Salvador. I’ll ask him what it’s like being watched by 10,000 people as he slept!