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

[640 Armageddon]

Originally Posted by too old

Or Henk to Helder "maybe we put a separate fuel gauge on each of the 5 fuel cells"

Helder " 5 fuel cells ".

[paulk46]

Originally Posted by drgunther

Shirt ordered!

Shirt ordered

[rallyman1978]

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

[8340SU]

Originally Posted by Myway

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”.

[Lupine128]

Mate, death wings are shit on any surface.

[paulk46]

Originally Posted by rallyman1978

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

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

[Brodovitch]

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

[8340SU]

Yamaha


Huskvarna


Michelin


Tour

[drgunther]

Originally Posted by K_N_Fodder

I tell you guys, I've had a shit attitude for the last few months with all the crap going down in the US, little kids getting shot in school, etc. Just starting to weigh me down, getting pretty brittle actually. Clinging hard to my family, having a tough time controlling my emotions like a normal grown man would at times. Giving lots of long hard hugs to my kids. Probably not enough long hugs to my wife :).

But then the Dakar comes along and I get to follow a bunch of people I don't know, struggling mightily every day. One of them walking in the dunes right now, 1:33 AM in Chile, pushing a 150cc bike for crying out loud. A guy who probably hasn't slept more than 4 hours a night since early January, and keeps going. Watching one of them who we know well after many heartbreaking failures, telling his wife on a satphone that he's just too old for this after getting run down by a truck. Another, with no expectations, making a top ten finish and then a few days later repairing a potentially race ending failure with zip ties and liquid steel. All the while taking his time to call in to his friends and report every night. A young gal, one of only two on bikes and back of the pack, stopping to help other riders when nobody else would. Another guy, a star, stopping to help a mid pack rider with a broken leg, and then that rider going out of his way to show appreciation from a hospital bed in a foreign country. A snippet from the wife of a rider, relating how her husband was breaking down because he missed his little girl's first day of school. And a million other human stories in this contrived, yet very real drama.

And then... the massive community of people supporting them, shouting for them, scrounging around on the internet looking for scraps of information because this huge, human enterprise, in one of the most spectacular areas of the world, isn't big enough news to be given more than a few minutes in the middle of the night. Providing high end analysis based on years of following racing and for some many years of actual racing. Building sophisticated tracking software and sharing it for free instead of sleeping. Juggling a family and running interviews for the F5 crew, and then soliciting funds so the riders aren't burdened by internationally sized phone bills. Finding a tire mousse for a kid who has nothing but still managed to get there. Finding and communicating information for hungry fans and worried friends and spouses. Postulating endlessly on why this person is 10 minutes late and that 10 minutes early. Cheering foreign TV streamed on a small laptop screen and screaming when the deadly "snooker" appears.

It's an interesting deal and one that I simply can't fathom why isn't a BIGGER deal in this country. I'm very glad to be part of it, even if barely hanging on after another 11 hour work day. Thanks a bunch you guys and gals, it's going to be weird when it's over. Now, time to do my workout (ugh), get to bed, and do it all over again...

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

[8340SU]

Struggling in the sand

[rallyman1978]

Originally Posted by K_N_Fodder

loadsa fuckin ace emotional stuff.

Hell yeah - epic post

[too old]

Originally Posted by rallyman1978

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

Looks like we are in for a late surge from rallyman

[8340SU]

wtf

[frank wheelbarrow]

A quick recap:

We have a flood of tears this morning from some real emotionally posts, we have Vicks getting a DNF for trying to sneak Patrol back in here( how you say in your language the key is gone?) And for spelling a country we drop the first letter for example Peru is eru....and Rubby means Robby.

Now back to the rench Olympics!



Someone make sure Pyndon reloads his shotgun please

[Balkan Boy]

That's a nasty one.

I always have that fear that my bike is going to slid in some gorge ...



I bet more then a few competitors are happy that there are so many spectators at el Dakaro.