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GHR Honda Team Site & Blog
GHR Honda Team Site & Blog
Jan 14th
A quick update on Jacob Smith’s progress in the today’s stage before I get the call from Argentina in a few hours.
Jake was the 22nd bike over the start this morning, and spent the whole day in the top 20. At one point late in the stage he had climbed to 15th position. I’m still waiting on confirmed results for the day but it appears that he finished the stage in 17th place, 37th overall.
Tomorrow is going to be another big one with 555km of special without the neutralised road section they rode today. The fact that he has cleared the stage in the top 20 will allow him to start well tomorrow after a decent rest tonight. At the time of writing approximately one tenth of the riders remain out on the stage as the sun sets in Argentina and Jacob turns in for the night.
Jan 13th
These were the first words of the very weary Glenn when called me at 1.30am his time having just battled through a 14 hour drive across the mountains. This was no leisurely cruise. The competitors and support crews all crossed the Andes for the second time today.
Most of the day consisted of tiny dirt and bitumen tracks, many of which had considerable drop offs and either negligible or no fencing. The truck loses the clutch above 3,000m and there were 140km of transport above 4,000m where just breathing becomes difficult. At times the progress was limited to 1st and 2nd gear because this was the most the truck would pull. Large sections of the dirt looked like a competitive stage rather than a convoy route with talc-like dust to knee height and ruts deep enough to trap the trucks. Some of the competitors vehicles were getting stuck in the transport, so you can imagine what it was like for the service vehicles in regular road going vehicles!
The pictures tell the story. There were cars and trucks stuck everywhere and one strayed into a ditch, ending up on its side. At the time Glenn called there were still some competitors yet to arrive.
Jacob Smith finished 19th for the day but he did have a major crash. He has damaged his shoulder and rearranged the navigation equipment, but he’ll be starting on a straightened machine tomorrow. At present the penalty accrued on Day 9 still stands. While the team are still campaigning for its reduction they are fairly sure there will still be something imposed. He stands in 39th place, but were the penalty be completely revoked he would return to 26th place overall.
Tomorrow is a massive day for the riders as they undertake a 164km liaison before the 622km special to San-Juan. The special will include one relentless ascent to over 3,000m before dropping more than 2,000m in less than 100km of racing. If today didn’t really test the field, tomorrow will. Jake will get to start in a reasonable position. Now we wait to see who emerges at the end…
Jan 12th
Jacob Smith started in the second wave of the mass-start of the loop though the Atacama Desert dunes and finished the day 30th on stage, 00:22:57 behind stage winner Jonah Street. He took it relatively easy in the 235km special to ensure he completed it without crashing or getting lost.
Nearing the end he happened upon front running Helder Rodrigues whose Yamaha had run out of fuel. Only 3km from the end of the stage, Jacob allowed Rodrigues to draw fuel from his #113 bike. Jacob was in no position to win the stage so the small amount of time lost seemed inconsequential. What did become an issue was the significant three hour time penalty applied to Jacob ‘s overall race time which now sees him drop to well below where he should be in the standings. It’s worth noting that the penalty has nothing to do with Jacob’s actions in the stage.
The team are currently working with the ASO and are appealing for the removal of the penalty. If successful, it will see Jake go back to a more appropriate 27th overall, but no decision will be made until tomorrow at the earliest.
More as it comes to hand, but in the meantime you can watch the action from the stage at http://player.sbs.com.au/dakar/#/dakar/highlights/highlights/playlist/Dakar-Stage-9-Bikes/.
Jan 11th
Today was the first day that Jacob Smith received anything approaching a “break”. He started the day 44th on the stage and by WP1 he had set the 24th fastest time in spite of the dust and traffic. There were no mechanical or tank related issues, and perseverance saw him finish 19th just 3 minutes behind David Casteu. Currently he stands 27th overall, two positions up the rankings. All are justifiably pleased with the day considering just how difficult the stage had been even at the new “shortened” length.
This was the clear run Jacob was after when we spoke yesterday. He managed the navigation well and hit all the waypoints. The only real reason he lost time today was the dust. He passed at least 10 riders, and is set for a start within the top 20 on tomorrow’s “looped” dunes stage beginning and ending in Copiapo. The curve ball with this stage will be the group start!
The service last night revealed the specific cause of Jake’s stoppage drama yesterday. This was not the “known” tyre clearance problem with the rear tanks, so far solved by shaving the sides of the rear tyres. The rear tank failed at the 3km mark yesterday because of damage inflicted during manufacture. On close inspection, it appears that the tool used to separate the moulds used in forming had harmed the tank on the inside of the airbox – an area that is hard to inspect and that normally wouldn’t be cause for concern. It was a one-off fault limited to that single tank only but it was enough to ruin the day. The compromised section started to leak as soon as the bike was ridden on rough terrain.
The team are delighted to report that up to this point the engines and gearboxes have proven to be incredibly resilient, while they take note of the empty chassis in other bikes on service nights. Jake’s machine was fitted with a new engine over the rest day as a matter of course, but did not actually appear to need it. Warren’s bike had not been touched and it had completed the whole first week bar the 30km not covered as a result of his crash. The air intakes on all bikes have been kept remarkably clean considering the bull-dust conditions the filters have been forced to tolerate, and not even a single clutch plate has been required. The worrisome issue for many teams has been longevity of their 450cc machines, and once more there were failures today.
It’s been an interesting insight as an outsider to see how the collective attitude has evolved during the event. The first week featured sadness, frustration, shock and awe.
The sadness was felt by all when one of the four riders had to leave for home in tragic circumstances before the engines were warmed for competition.
Widespread frustration came with the delays in accessing the gear shipped in advance, then as a result of “debut blunders” and then component problems. Glenn had hoped to put at least one of the riders in the top 20 for the event based on prior understanding of their speed and reliability. The plan was let down by the reliability or lack thereof brought about by the outsourced components. The team had no reason to expect the fuel tank dramas and GPS failures encountered so far. There isn’t a clear way to react to or plan around such failures other than to build everything at home and conduct sufficient destructive testing and intentional abuse to be able to consider them Dakar proof.
Nobody expected to be so shocked by how vast some of the organisational differences are. Each and every day people are nearly killed on the transports. Everyone in the team had become accustomed to the common sense approach taken to transport sections on Safari, where the organisers keep track of how punctually the riders assemble at the start of the special stages. If the riders are all on schedule, the time allowed was obviously appropriate. If three quarters of the field are not on time, the organisers realise this and factor it in on following days so the competitors do not have to endanger themselves. Nobody at GHR was prepared for just how many risks Dakar competitors have to take to get to the start line by their allotted departure time, and the blame for this lies at the feet of the organisers who incidentally still complain about the way people are driving. Because of the way the ASO start the stopwatch at the prescribed start times regardless of whether the competitor has arrived in time or not, they have no way to accurately assess whether or not their planning was reasonable and there is no flexibility on this. All three of the GHR riders who started the event fell foul to this very problem.
There is now detailed list of things to alter for next time – adjusting weight allocation and handling characteristics are but two examples. None of the proposed geometry changes are hard to execute in the confines of development at home, but they are impossible to change during the race. The differences between Safari and Dakar are now becoming quite clear. Some are subtle and many are not, but none could be accurately quantified without jumping out of the pot and into the fire. This is all part of why the team are in Dakar this year.
Certainly, all the setbacks have toughened the characters of everyone but Glenn’s buoyant tone today reflects the sentiments of the whole team. If Dakar were easy, nobody would come all this way do it. GHR have now discovered first hand the magnetism that draws people from across the globe. Therein lies the awe. Bring on Day 9…
Jan 10th
I had a call from Jacob Smith at the end of Day 7 their time. Right off the start, Jacob struck trouble with a leaking fuel tank causing the bike splutter to a halt.
Ed: Hi Jake, yet another frustrating day today…
JS: Yeah. It’s been like that the whole week! But at least we made it in at the end. I didn’t think I was going to… thought it was a case of race over. I was pretty happy just to get it moving again, but I’ve actually still come up in the overall standings (currenty 29th). It could have been a lot worse than it is!
Ed: Did it take you long to work out what was up?
JS: When it stopped I knew it was something electrical or it was flooding. Turned out to be flooding, and when I tipped the bike on the side I saw the fuel running out the bottom of the tank. As quick as I could, I took the tank and the seat off, swapped the plug over, drained the carby in case the tank had picked up some dirt. I had to nurse it for the next 50km partly because it wasn’t running well, but also because I wouldn’t have made it with the fuel range. It was just one of those things.
Ed: Looking at the timing for the waypoints, you lost 38 minutes in the run from the start to WP1, but as soon as you were running again you started climbing the standings. The persistent theme here is that no matter what things conspire against you, you are riding fast and cleanly.
JS: Yes, definitely. I’ve ridden with a few of the guys further up the front and stuck with them easily. I’m setting OK times in the pack, but plenty of the time I’ve had to just cruise in 2nd or 3rd because I can’t see for all the dust.
Ed: Today sounded very dusty…
JS: Yeah, it was. Just as bad as any other day especially passing the quads. Behind them you can’t see a thing. Stopping to 35 minutes to fix the bike puts you right in the middle of the slower riders. I passed probably 30 today. I came in 43rd for the stage having started in the 50s. Time for the first sector was right near the bottom.
Ed: Other than issues with the GPS units misbehaving, you seem to have your head around the navigation fairly well now.
JS: I’m picking it up. At the moment I keep finding that I need to do the navigation very carefully. When you get stuck at the back, there are tracks everywhere that make the going even more confusing. I need to choose carefully. The tracks just go everywhere at the waypoints. Certainly I’ll be a lot wiser for next year.
Ed: You’ve had some testing days, but what’s been the highlight so far?
JS: The crowds. Mate, they are unbelievable! I can’t really put it into words… It’s like the Tour de France in all the towns. I pull up to a red light and everyone just rushes up. They just want to touch you, get your autograph and cheer you on. It just blows me away. Even in the really early starts at 4.30 or 5.00 am there are just thousands of people lining the roads.
Ed: One of the pictures that came through before Mark came off was of him talking to a crowd of people all with cameras on the other side of the bivouac fence.
JS: That night was incredible. I woke up to the noise of the crowd at 3.30am the next morning. Those masses of people just stayed there all night and didn’t sleep. They’re fanatics!
Ed: Speaking of sleep, you must come in pretty worn out but still worn out at the end of the stage. Obviously you still have lots to do. What’s your wind-down routine to start the job of sleeping?
JS: The first week was pretty hectic. The crew helped as much as they could. I’d sit down for 20 minutes and have something to eat, then go off and shower. I’d have to do the road book, pack my backpack and water, get the riding gear ready, set up my bed. The first week it just felt like I didn’t stop. Just going to the showers or toilets or the phone, it’s a real hike to get there especially when you have to go 4 times at 20 minutes a go. Getting into a routine really helps – in bed by 10.30 and then awake at 3.30 for riders’ briefing. It’s a gruelling schedule, but since Mark’s not longer riding he has been helping me out heaps. Mark and Arja (a local contact for the team) have been doing my road books which saves me time.
Ed: Mark has described himself as your “dog’s body”.
JS: That’s it! He’s been doing an awesome job. Today I was able to come in, shower and then go lie down on the stretcher straight away for half an hour while they started my preparations. It makes such a difference when you don’t have to worry about all the little things. That’s the benefit the big boys in the factory teams have. They have motorhomes, so they get off the bike and have their own showers and toilets and a crew to attend to everything they need. The less of that sort of stuff you have to worry about the better I think.
Ed: Did you get to put your feet up much on the rest day yesterday?
JS: I did. We went into town the night before to stay in a hotel with everything we needed nearby. After dinner I think I got to bed around 12.30 and slept in until 7.00 am. We kicked around there for most of the morning before having lunch. We had to go back to bivouac to set up a few things but I managed to do an hour’s sight seeing before dinner and bed again. It was a good change, but it went fast. I certainly didn’t have much time doing nothing, but it was a break I needed. I got to recharge the batteries a bit and sleep in a decent bed. Doesn’t sound like much, but it makes life much better!
Ed: Warren Strange and his guys have gone home now haven’t they?
JS: Yeah, they went into Santiago last night and then flew to Buenos Aires for a flight home tomorrow morning. His shoulder is not flash and he needs to get it checked out. He really didn’t want to deal with it here because of the language barrier as much as anything, so going home was the only choice.
Ed: When he went down was the iritrack set off by you guys or did the organisers make contact?
JS: I was right beside him when he went down. We rode together for a couple of hundred k’s because my GPS was down. I saw the whole thing happen since I was only 5 metres away. It looked bad, but since it low-sided him I thought he might have been OK. When I got to him he was still lying on the ground and told me he thought his shoulder was out. He wanted to have a crack at putting it back in although I wasn’t too keen on it. I grabbed his shoulder and tried to pull it back but he realised it was no good. We needed to get the chopper so I went to activate the safety gear. It called over to France and it was a little hard to get everything through – I had to repeat myself three or four times so they understood what we needed. But after that, the chopper showed up very quickly once I got off the phone to HQ. The first of the cars were coming through and I had to go up the top to slow the first three cars down. Once I was no longer needed there I went back to see him but there was nothing more I could do. I just had to hop back on my bike and get to it.
Ed: How did you manage the today with no GPS?
JS: It was tough, but I spent some time early on trying to rewire it. I managed to get it to power up again but the aerial wasn’t working. I was trying to get to the fuel stop to work more on it, so did that all with the road book. At the fuel stop I tried fixing it and saw Warren was coming. I just cruised along the side of the track until he caught up and we continued side by side until he crashed. I just winged it to town after that point. There were plenty of tracks but choosing the right ones was tricky. Fortunately the road book checked out and I made it in. Trying to see where we going in the dunes was really hard – it’s so repetitive!
(Jake’s phone rings with another call from Australia.)
Ed: Have you been keeping in touch with many people back home? There are a huge number of people all over the country following you.
JS: I have. I speak to my parents every day, and I’ve spoken to my brother a few times. Friends from home have been in touch and my trainer called last night. Facebook has been going off it’s head! I try to get on that every couple of nights with an update for everyone following there. The support from home has been overwhelming to tell you the truth. I didn’t expect it, but the whole town is behind me. I spoke to Mum about it and she said it takes her half an hour to just get through the checkout at the supermarket because everyone wants to know how we are going. She’s not getting much sleep either. My folks have been up every night watching it on the net. I sort of feel that with my results… I ‘m not doing that well, but everyone is still behind me.
Ed: The point is we can see from the times at night that you’re really doing well when you don’t have a problem. That’s the awful thing – every day something spoils the run and then you have to chase 3 dozen riders to play catch up or you get to start from the back again. There have been heaps of positive comments on the website (keep them coming everyone!!!) and we’re all behind you whatever happens.
JS: That’s the thing, I want to repay that. Of course I want to finish this thing for myself, but I also want to do everyone proud – the team included. I want to get this thing to the finish. Everyone at home is saying, “we don’t care were you come, but bring it home”.
Ed: People like Jonah Street and David Casteu had big problems yesterday – at one stage Jonah thought he was out for keeps but he managed to get the bike going again. At this stage of the event, other riders are starting to find things just grinding to pieces. You never want to wish anyone bad luck however you’ve had more than your fair share of it. Hopefully karma balances things out a little!
JS: I hope so, mate! But I know what you mean. It showed today when I had all that trouble with the fuel tank but I still went from 33rd to 29th. I just have to get that thing to the finish and that’s what will give confidence for next year. If you can make a clean run of it with a “dust gap” you’d be surprised where you can end up. You don’t have to be the outright fastest rider, but if you keep it clean you can run in the top ten, no worries.
Ed: That’s the catch, the top 10 guys start at two minute intervals, but where you’ve been finding yourself the bikes are sent out every 30 seconds. They get four times the gap.
JS: It was actually two at a time off the start today too… It was crazy.
Ed: I should let you go take that other call. You have a good day tomorrow and we’ll see if we can catch up in a couple of days and see if the tables have turned!
Jan 10th
In spite of Glenn’s insistence that he didn’t want the windscreen washed, this guy in Arica jumped on the truck (no small feat) and started to lather it up anyway. Sitting at the front of the lights when they changed to green, Glenn didn’t have much option but to hook first and drive through the intersection because of the traffic behind. The look on the guy’s face says it all; “this didn’t go to plan”. The spontaneous ride continued for about a block and a half until Glenn pulled over. Washer-man then asked Glenn for money, but Glenn insisted that he was the one due payment since he’d given the kind man a ride.
The perennial Dakar crowd watched the whole thing in laughter.
Jan 10th
Ed: Hi Mark… been taking it easy on your day off?
MD: I’ve had two days off, what are you talking about? (laughs…)
Ed: It’s nice to see you’re still over there and living it up in spite of being out of the race, and I like the picture of you holding up the Panadeine Forte! How are you feeling with all your battered bits and pieces?
MD: I’m actually pretty happy. I did my best. I was 101st in the field and doing better than I thought I would. But I never, ever thought that I’d suffer so much with altitude sickness. It just wrecked me completely. It took me nine hours to ride the 500km transport, and two hours of that was way up the top. I could only ride at about 50 kph and I needed three stops for oxygen, one of those being in the hospital. I passed out twice and vomited in my helmet… it really knocked me around.
It took me so long to get over the mountains that I was late for the start of the special stage. I was due to start at 12.37 pm, but in reality I didn’t get there until 4.15 pm. By that stage all the bikes and all the cars had left. The bloke at the control point wasn’t going to let me start because he said I was the last bike… but then another bike did turn up. We argued about it, and he spent some time on the radio with someone else speaking french – I didn’t understand what they discussed. At the end of it he came over and said, “very well, you may start in 20 minutes, five minutes before the trucks”. I told him I didn’t want to wait and his response was essentially that I had that one option, or I was finished for the Dakar.
Faced with no other choice I started five minutes before the big Red Bull monster trucks and the all others. It was a fairly windy day. I lasted 120km, and cleared off the track when they pushed the sentinel button to tell me they were going to pass – except not all of them used it. I moved off the track for one truck thinking I was up-wind, but I’d picked the wrong side. The truck passed and I was swallowed in a cloud of dust. Before I could stop I hit a rock and that was it. I went over the handlebars in third gear and wrecked all the navigation gear.
I managed to get up but I hurt and had no strength. I had a fair idea what I had done, but managed to ride the rest of the stage and entered the bivouac at about 8.00 pm. I went straight to the medical tent and an x-ray confirmed that I had broken ribs. Glenn asked me what I wanted to do and I told him I wanted to battle on. I went off to tidy myself up and then he came over to me with the bike and tipped it on its side. He wanted me to pick it up, but I told him I didn’t think I could because I struggled earlier in the day and the pain was worse now. Glenn said, “well you’re going to need to do that five or six times tomorrow and every day for the next ten days… what do you think?”. We arrived at the inevitable conclusion…
I guess the thing that most disappoints me is that I had no idea that the altitude was going to be such a problem. There really wasn’t anything in the disclosure material for Dakar covering how serious it was. It effected many, many people and I think the older you are, the worse it is.
Ed: It’s a cruel irony to have your Dakar effectively ended by a transport stage rather than running out of puff in the desert.
MD: Oh, look… I made mistakes, sure. Yes, I crashed in the stage, but I did also finish the stage. Would I have crashed otherwise if I was the 101st bike in? Probably I would have been fine, but that’s the event mate! There are all sorts of obstacles that you never think about. Would it have been something else a day later? I can’t say!
Ed: When we spoke just before you left Australia, you said you thought you were as prepared as one could be. Is there anything you would have done differently?
MD: Two things. I knew that we’d be well over 4,000m altitude, but I didn’t appreciate that we’d be there or above for 200km, for two or three hours. I’d never experienced 4,800m before, so I should have considered that more. Subsequently, I asked one of the medicos what other people do. I was surprised to learn that many riders bring their own oxygen – like the small tanks that elderly people carry. I was surprised, but I now know it’s essential. Am I disappointed? Sure… But I remember that I was running middle of the field for five days and I am very happy about that. I gave it my best shot, you know?
Ed: I was pleased to see that in the early stages you were improving on your start position, not just plodding along.
MD: I was happy with my performance. I’d like to be out there still plodding along, but I’m here.
Ed: You’re staying on with the guys for the duration of the event?
MD: Well, there are only Jake and myself left and he’s the only “runner”. I’m staying on to be Jacob’s “dog’s body”. One of the things that outsiders definitely won’t appreciate here is that the bivouac is so big that it’s hard to find things. You need someone at the front gate to show you where the camp is – it’s different every day and you can easily spent 20 minutes looking for it. Then you need to get your GPS code. Then you need your road book. Then you need to get your start time. Those things aren’t available until 10.00 or 11.00 at night when you want to be in bed if you’re racing. It can take two hours to get these sorted at night when you should be asleep. So I’m going to hang out and try to make things as easy for him as I can.
Ed: So are you considering it homework for next year?
MD: Every day is still a learning experience even though I’m not riding. I’m taking the time to talk to other riders, other mechanics and I am picking up as much as I can. I am sucking the brains out of the GPS guys. It’s an event you really need to learn the ropes for. Jacob is running around 34th in the field (he was on the day) and could easily run in the top ten save for his series of problems. Whether or not they are all his fault is irrelevant, because with more experience many would not have happened.
Ed: That’s the picture I get from everyone in the team. The other thing that everyone has noticed is just how generous the whole Dakar caravan of competitors seem to be with their time.
MD: I was expecting people to have that attitude because I had experienced it before. It’s not the case here at all. There’s no “closed book”, and if they can help you they will. I’m sure that if you were here by yourself, you’d not go without help. We’ve found out some interesting things though. I think that guy making me start just five minutes in front of the trucks is almost criminal. Have you seen those things? I kid you not, they are passing at 180 kph. The are just horrible things to be near and not even Jake could get away from them. It was an irresponsible, bloody-minded, spiteful decision. I guess I made him look silly in front of his colleagues when, having told me I was the last bike, the other one turned up! In Safari we have transport stages that are pretty relaxed. Here, you can’t muck around. You have to break every speed limit and nearly every road rule in the book. Only then would you maybe have ten minutes up your sleeve at the beginning of the special. Jake found that out the hard way when he stopped for fuel and a whizz and with one little wrong turn he got there 20 minutes late. That sort of thing can end a race. I picked up 15 speeding infringements on the first day because I didn’t understand the speed zones. They threw the rule book at me, but I’ve learned that other guys know what they can get away with. That comes with time and experience.
Ed: Sounds like fun, and even with all of that I can tell you’re still smiling.
MD: I’m having the time of my life! It’s an absolute ball! I’m not the dunce, so don’t think that at all. I signed up for Dakar, and I’m going to finish Dakar. Not as a rider, but I’ll finish as a rider’s assistant. I’ve got no regrets. The only drawback is these broken ribs. The bones are completely smashed and I can feel them grinding together.
Ed: No coughing, no sneezing and laughing isn’t much chop.
MD: I can tell you going to the toilet isn’t much fun!
Mark was given the round up by Glenn at this stage. It was 1.00 am and they had to be up around 4.30 am. Time really is short over there and I think everyone is grateful for Mark’s dedication to his new-found role. Everyone expected Day 7 to be big…
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