As I understand it, Helder and Paulo are using CRF450R's for this rally, not the usual X based bike. The weld on the frame seems to back that up as it's decidedly more angular on the R than the X which is more of a rounded weld. R on the left, X on the right. But then again, the weld on Paulo's looks completely different as well. Perhaps it's an older CRF frame? I know, nerd central.
I concur on that. It was definitely the hardest day yet. If feeling pretty beaten up tonight. I had a fight with a tree and it won! Tomorrows stage is 210km. There is a refuel in the middle. Here's the notes
No I was to busy trying to get myself back together to worry about photos. It was right after a slippery hill climb and I looked down at the roadbook for 1 second to long!
I'm just reading here http://www.worldrallyraid.com/blog/2013/06/gio that Vialdoms retired (fainted or something like that) and two Italians had a big frontal :eek1 crash! Nothing too serious but both (the fast Ciarpaglini and Previsani) taken to the hospital. Botturi had problems twice and twice helpde by Vogels, who then fell down , Despres and Ceci too had a heavy falls
Ouch!:eek1 In THIS article (in Italian) Botturi described his first special stage as this: "I was going fast, wait, no, I was going very fast, I was right behind Faria that started 8 minutes before me, but then I got stuck in the wire*. So here comes Vogels, helps me taking it off so I could start again, didn't loose too much time. Problem is that I have probably lost some fuel there and later I had to stop again because I did ran out of it. Again Vogels helped me out." *Apparently he did a mistake in his navigation and ended on a metallic net, and some wire got stuck in his wheels It also says that in the second special stage Vogels fell down a slope, luckily with no consequences for him. I think this is the cause for his gap.
Well, actually in italian chickpeas are called "ceci", funny "lost in translation" though Meantime in the official site they said that also Rodrigues ran out of fuel before the end of the first special stage...
Helder is slowly making his way towards "fuel-gate"... Seriously, what is with that guy and fuel issues?? . I hope his luck changes though. Looks like quite the hard day for everyone.
I'm not doubting his bike handling skills, but perhaps his earlier Yamaha performances were more lucky than good and he no longer has that luck? No one else seems to have quite the problems he has. I wonder how much decision making he has over his strategy and bike set up because little seems to be working for him.
He does seem to have gone only backwards since his move to HRC. One would have thought that by this time he would be padding his margins with regards to fuel, but as you say he may not have much latitude in that decision making. Sad that he could have such great performances on a near-privateer WR450 but find the works Honda wanting.
It is a bit of sad state when a works bike looks like that. We don't know why the bike ran out of fuel but I would hope it would be due to something other then bad math and risk taking on Helders part. Something like a fuel leak due to weld failing on that sweet tank.
Also Zanotti ran out of fuel the other day (he has a 16 lt fuel tank on his TM), towed out the first PS by Bruno Da Costa just in time to avoid the exclusion! And the day before had bad fuel issues too. So it could be not only a "bad luck" problem for Helder too...
It seems to be just him out the back of a van with a mechanic and helpers so I would suggest it is his decision on strategy!
