Dakar 2013 - Official Event Coverage - thank you ALL TeamF5, lurkers and posters!

Yup, I would love to be witness to a KTM chat in their bivvy HQ last night. I am pretty sure Chaleco was not on the guest list

With the top 5 sewn up as you noted, Chaleco is the underdog, probably feels like an outsider and will pull the pin to prove a point today. I wish him well, would like to see him on the 2nd place of the podium, just hoping he doesn't go into berserker mode today and end up in Bolivia

And I guess on that note, Verhoeven is off!

Shirt ordered!

Busted. Again.

There you go, my boss to the rescue. Start times were originally 8:00 am

thanks boss!

Oh, and amazing phone in by Lyndon, thanks again Nate!

image from FB:

Any new rumours of super-human efforts by Luis?

Belay that delay... nope scratch that... no delay that belay... Huh?! :huh

What the f5%& is going on here...!!!???

I believe this is what you're looking for:

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Shirt ordered

Go to work they said. Snow wont be too bad they said.

Well FYYFF's it WAS bad and we DID close for the day and get sent home after an hour

So thanks for the 2 crashes, broken handguard and pulled back muscles



Oh well I'll just have today and tomorrow on the F5irehose then on full pay

ps Bridgestone Trailwings are shite in snow

dakar com

The Dakar is rarely a comfortable experience. For Hervé Thierry, his problems started as early on as the 2nd stage, with a fall in which he hurt his wrist. “Since then, I've been handicapped: I'm having to deal with the pain and I'm obliged to ride slower than my natural pace. What's more, the state of my wrist deteriorated after the stage at Cordoba, when I fell crossing the last river bed we had to cross”. Though he has managed by dint of self-sacrifice to tame his pain, Hervé was especially fighting against a constraint that is even more difficult to control on the Dakar: the exhausting of his physical resources which he can feel shrinking with every day that passes. “Seeing as I'm going slowly, I spend very long days on the tracks, especially on the link stages. I'm not managing to recover and have not been able to get enough sleep. This morning, I had to stop for around half an hour to have a lie down next to my bike, because I was falling asleep at the handlebars! As a result, I missed my starting time, which just worsened the situation. The worst was the day of the marathon stage. When it started raining, I asked myself what the hell I was doing here, and that completely broke my resistance”. Despite the tiredness and heavy eyelids, the business manager from Normandy is starting to see light at the end of the tunnel on his first Dakar: “I'm so close to the finish, so I'm going to make sure I get there”.

Mate, death wings are shit on any surface.

Mich deserts are not to bad, quick change of wheels , and hey presto Cinders you can go to work.

45 minutes to start, do yourself a favour and listen to this:

Mark Miller interviewed on Robbie Gordon and his new book about Dakar, DASH

Really cool info on his co-drivers, his teammates from the VW years and Rubbie.

At the end, he has a little surprise announcement, I won't spoil it for you though

Yamaha
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Huskvarna
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Michelin
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Tour
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Couldn't have said it better myself! I'm right there with you.

Struggling in the sand

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Hell yeah - epic post

Looks like we are in for a late surge from rallyman