Dakar 2006 - Official Race Discussion Thread

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Faria 1st the Stage, Esteve 1st Overall
Well, Ruben Faria, who was 2nd in the yesterday stage, has won the second special test of the Dakar 2006. Over the 115 kilometres between Portimao and the extreme South of the Algarve region, the Portuguese feeds the rumours of a special prize to be assigned to a native winner in the European part of the race. But last night Faria was penalized because of a late entry in the parc fermé. 12 heavy minutes. So the last chance was wasted. In fact the best overall pilot after two legs is Isidre Esteve, the Spanish that has passed in the KTM Gauloises Team just before this Dakar. In the today’s stage Esteve finished in second position.

But let us make a step behind. Yesterday night Astrid made a call for all the team members and introduced Hans Trunkenpolz. The general manager wanted to speak to everybody for a moment. The old “year” was ending and the new was incoming. A half a hour only between the two years. Trunkenpolz spoken for minutes to the biggest family of this Dakar. Intense moments when he remembered unforgettable Champions Richard Sainct and Fabrizio Meoni, and their memorable exploits. Then the “Boss” spoken about the difficulties of the race, and about the meaning of a so large group involved in. Cyril Despres, who lived both the main glorious and the tragic episodes of the strongest team ever seen on the Dakar, was thrilled. The winner of the past edition of the rally knows his role perfectly. And his sensitivity and his talent can flow together in the growth of this family. Then Mr. Trukenpolz addressed to all the members of the large KTM Team the best wishes of the Factory. The new year was just there.

This morning the “crew” faced the last European day of the Dakar. The track was similar to the one of yesterday. Terrain was slippery because of wet weather conditions and because of the particular sandy ground of the zone. Many corners and technical passages, fords to be wadded and jumps. And a strong wind blowing out. A demanding test for talent riders and for effective bikes. Thousand of peoples along the entire section completed the race frame.

Despres preferred to keep a “low profile”, gliding corners and never forcing. He closed the special test in eleventh position, but with some advantages acquired for the next stage. By this way the French Champion will start behind some riders in the first African special test, and this is a good, logical strategy in order to avoid navigation problems.

Marc Coma was fifth today, and he is now second in the overall standing. He forced a little bit only in the final part of the special test, mainly because of the pleasure he token riding in the enthusiastic atmosphere created by the spectators. Marc joked with the race until he slipped away in a little fall. Then he resumed his full concentration. “It was very exciting to race between this two wings of spectators”, said the Repsol KTM world champion, “You can take a lot of risks also in a short leg like this one. But I want to ask to you: is not a pure happiness to run in this kind of atmosphere? Starting from tomorrow things will be so complicated, so let me enjoy this race break.”

Same force has pushed out David Casteu, Gauloises team mate, that is with Michel Gau at his first Dakaras Factory Rider.

Then, after the special test, all the competitors crossed the border between Portugaland Spain, and they complete the stage reaching Malaga. There a ferryboat is waiting for the long convoy. Tomorrow the Dakarwill change again his context. A new continent, Africa, a new Country, Algeria, a new day of race. A long stage of 672 kilometres, with a special test of 387. The first bivouac will maybe reached at night.

Rankings:
2nd stage — Special: 115 km

Stage Results
1. Faria (KTM) 01:37:07h
2. Esteve Pujol (Gauloises KTM) +01:07
3. Casteu (Gauloises KTM) + 01:28
4. Rodrigues (YAMAHA) + 02:00
5. Coma (Repsol KTM) + 02:08
6. Pellicer (KTM) + 02:28
7. Farres Guell (YAMAHA) + 02:52
8. Goncalves (HONDA) + 03:07
9. Fretigne (YAMAHA) + 03:28
10. Sala (Repsol KTM) + 03:28
11. Despres (Gauloises KTM) + 03:38
12. AgraCarrera (YAMAHA) + 03:44
13. De Gavardo (Repsol KTM) + 03:50
14. Blais (Red Bull USAKTM) + 03:59
15. Mateus (KTM) + 04:01
16. Viladoms (Repsol KTM) + 04:04
17. Grider (Red Bull USAKTM) + 04:34
18. Duclos (KTM) + 04:43
19. Verhoefen (YAMAHA) + 05:05
20. Amaral (KTM) + 05:09
27. Caldecott (Repsol KTM) + 06:00
28. Gau (Gauloises KTM) + 06:06

Overall Results
1. Esteve Pujol (Gauloises KTM) 02:37:24h
2. Coma (Repsol KTM) 02:37:32h + 00:08
3. Rodrigues (YAMAHA) 02:38:07h + 00:43
4. Casteu (Gauloises KTM) 02:38:11h + 00:47
5. Despres (Gauloises KTM) 02:38:55h + 01:31
6. Pellicer (KTM) 02:39:29h + 02:05
7. Fretigne (YAMAHA) 02:39:50h + 02:26
8. Goncalves (HONDA) 02:40:59h + 03:35
9. De Gavardo (Repsol KTM)02:42:15h + 04:51
10. Farres Guell (YAMAHA) 02:42:15h + 04:51
11. AgraCarrera (YAMAHA) 02:42:36h + 05:12
12. Duclos (KTM) 02:42:51h + 05:27
13. Mateus (KTM) 02:43:12h + 05:48
14. Viladoms (Repsol KTM) 02:44:01h + 06:37
15. Street (KTM) 02:44:06h + 06:42
16. Grider (Red Bull USAKTM) 02:44:57h 0+ 07:33
17. Blais (Red Bull USAKTM) 02:45:29h + 08:05
18. Caldecott (Repsol KTM) 02:45:42h + 08:18 Penalty: 02:00
19. Amaral (KTM) 02:45:44h + 08:20
20. Marchini (YAMAHA) 02:46:00h + 08:36
23. Gau (Gauloises KTM) 02:46:20 + 08:56
27. Sala (Repsol KTM) 02:46:56 + 9:32

Thanks, Mikas.

I love the sound of an angry thumper.

Thanks for the pics, vids, updates!! This is gonna be fun!

i just checked and its at 2:00 pm here on oln. mountain time.

OMFG! I think OLN fixed it! Could they have actually listened to us (the Dakar FANS)?

I haven't seen Toby Moody yet but the coverage doesn't have any of that "Human drama, survive another night in the desert" crap. It looks like Eurosport might have gotten the gig. If not, it looks enough like it that we'll enjoy it. DAMN DAMN DAMN, this is GOOD!

AVENTURE!!!

I agree, but I think you'll see all that over-produced fluff during that show they're promoting which starts on th 14th. Good thing I got Tivo.

I thought the start of coverage of this years rally was pretty good.Has anyone recorded from their Tivo to a VHS?I am going to try to do it and hope it works.The Deroy trucks were not allowed to race because they failed tech inspection That has got to suck for them.I wonder what was wrong?

Do you think so or is that just a recap / rebroadcast of the previous week's coverage? Eurosport (Speed) used to have that 1 hour recap show after the rally. Maybe they expanded it to weekly summaries?

It looks like the did the most obvious thing: pay Eurosport and hand them a microphone with OLN on it. Problem solved. I still miss Toby Moody and the old theme music (Wock: Sama Amie).

Can anybody outside the US tell us if Toby has retired from Dakar coverage? Does this sound like the coverage the rest of the world is getting?

Yeah, me too. Damn I used to love the in-truck shots of his crew bouncing around and Jan DeRooy concentrating with his tongue sticking out of the side of his mouth (remember that?). Whenever my motorhome is bouncing down a desert road out to a riding area, I stick my tongue out exactly the same way

Here's the link to DeRooy's Dakar site. Lots of good truck pictures on there (big too).

Well I never thought I'd say it but I think its good R.Gordon is in it with the Hummer because if you didn't notice Hummer was sponsoring todays telecast. That was not originally scheduled!

No Toby so far on Eurosport's coverage, just some ass hat in a studio providing voice over for the pictures. I think it is the guy who commentated for Eurosport before Toby did it for a couple of years. Fingers crossed it will change when they hit Africa, but I suppose I shouldn't grumble given that I get to watch a 30 minute broadcast everyday with the day's action.

do you think OLN could get the damm phony girl announcer (who was she?) in sync with the picture?..how patheic and embarrsing their coverage is and the time slot during the week...!!1who the hell is going to watch at one in the afternoon? what dumbasses are running that network? Couln'd they put one those stupiud re-necked hunting sbows on instead?

SAAAHHHHWWWEEEETTT! That's what I wanted to hear. We got the same coverage here. You're right, maybe Toby is waiting in Africa. I'm going to give them a couple of days to make sure this continues, then send a HUGE thank you to OLN.

thought i was the only one that was tired of him taking up air time to promote his face.

Hey, hey, careful what you ask for. Do you want them to bring back Jerry Bernardo and the camel?


At least she's pretty. She's just there to do the opening and closing commentary, integrating the Eurosport coverage into OLN. Speed used to have Toby Moody shoot separate intros and wrap-ups for them holding a Speed microphone.

Time? Yeah, it sucks. It means I'll have to record the commercials with it. If you didn't see how bad it was last year, I can understand your dissatisfaction.

I think we finally got the best coverage we're going to get here in the states and I think they did a good job. They had to get the OLN mic in there somewhere and Kirtsen Gum isn't annoying.

It would be great if it was same day coverage but it is so much better than last year. As far as what time its on, who cares? Program your VCR or Tivo and blast the commercials, I'd much rather do that than sit through them at 8 at night when I'll end up watching it.

Doesn't mean much at this point, but symbolically, it must be sweet for Street to be ahead of both Blais and Grider, who beat him in the rider search.

I'll be very curious to see how the 525 holds up in Africa with a factory level pilot aboard- I guess my fear is that it will be a great bike for conditions but too delicate to maintain front running pace, especially with the limited spares of Charlie's privateer effort. I think it's a huge win for Charlie to have gotten Jonah aboard.

In any case, I'm so excited to see this thing get rolling, and that everyone is still in and will get a chance to start in Africa. I'm concerned for why Embro is so far down- I know he's fast from his performance in BITD races...

The OLN coverage is almost exactly the same as Trevor from Austrialia's Bittorrent files.

OLN came through for us. No Toby Mody, but they hit it 99%.

Does anyone know what the DAF Deroy Trucks failed inspection on? That's a lot of disqualified trucks.