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

Doesn't it, though? I think that's what baffles those of us here who "get it". People are dying for the stories, the REAL stories on the Dakar. Mega media just don't deliver it (though we've come to the revelation this year that FranceTV do!!)

You know, that probably explains why there are so few French participants here at F5. They never had to come here to look for that content in the first place...

Interesting.

Excellent post, TSC. - Well said.

I've been sick so I'm falling behind...

Fuck.

I'll catch up this weekend maybe.

Very nice, puts the hairs up on my arms. I think everybody can relate at least once or twice to receiving that kind of call...

Never thought I would say Vive Le France, but the coverage is C'est Magnifique.
Even when France 4 was a bit ordinary because the bivouac was empty the program on later on France 2 made up for it as the riders had arrived.

Did I call that or what????

I guess I need to pay more attention to the Rallye than the F5ire Hose, but then again most of these guys have been beating me down for the last 7 years and I'm just trying to sit back and learn....

Gah... two hour time change in the wrong direction. :huh This Dakar is just exhausting for us PST armchair riders.

Cheers Troy - Very sobering and brings it all home - how hard to push and how much is it really worth - this thing has to be treated with total respect and a lesson (notwithsatnding that the circumstances of your story may not be directly related) that this balanced marathon not a series of sprints.

Think how different, well, perhaps not different, but expanded, the community is now than it was when Andy died. I'm not kidding when I call this my "support group". There's not a single person that I interact with locally in my daily life that remotely understands.

Dak what?

It's a rally that used to be in Africa, now it's in South America... that, uh, nevermind.


But here, we're among friends.

Where else are you going to find stories about mousses.

Not even F4 TV can bring you that type of coverage.

I think your comments are spot on.


Off to the bivouac for me, folks. Catch you tomorrow. And yes, the time change is a serious bummer! (though still much easier than the days in Africa!)

Thanks for a great post, Troy. As usual, well said.

Actually, what I gather from lurking in some French forums is that they are all busy posting comments about what an insufferable prick the presenter Gerrard Wazzhizname is.

Nate, here is my take on it, I remember when the first Dakar started the french press was all over it, even magazines that were not related to motorized sport were talking about the Dakar, because it was the dream, they were getting people hooked to the human challenge, the adventure in the unknown outside of our societies where risk has for the most part been taken away. Plus kind of like the Tour de France, the Dakar caravane was crossing France, I remembered spending hours on the side of the road watching those vehicles go by, something that no very many of us experience anymore.

Obviously pretty soon, the TVs went in and it expanded from there, I seem to remember that in the early 90's during the Peugeot an Citroen era La 5 had more than 5 hours daily related to the Dakar. That was awesome, but it was probably too much as they did not maintained it. Then France television picked it up, France 2, France 3 and France 4. From there it seems that the coverage has been about constant. Somebody commented earlier that in Africa there was not as good TV coverage, from a french viewer stand point I do not think it was true, this year coverage by France 4 based on the available technology is no different in my opinion to what we were seeing in Africa. Something that they try to do is to present the Dakar under all its various aspects, the race with the leaders, the country and the landscape visited and then the human adventure (the guys that are in the back that are struggling to make it through the stages, etc...)

Obviously here (in the US) TV coverage of the Dakar is mainly inexistant and that has been hard to follow. Myway made my year this year by figuring out a way to get the french broadcast here. In the past I was messing with VPN from France to access that coverage but it was cumbersome and never worked really well. I actually the last few years planned my yearly trip around the Dakar so that I could get the good coverage while over there ;-)

A lot of good info tonight. Unfortunately I am out of juice.

See all of you tomorrow.

There was never a single person in mine either, until my wife started a new job in 2009. A few years ago, I met my wife's co-worker. He's a Chilean ex-pat, living in the US for the last 25 years or so. He's a sports nut, so he doesn't focus directly on Dakar as much as I do... but he understands just how obsessed I am with the Rally and is excited to see it travel through his homeland.

Over the holidays, he traveled home to Concepcion, Chile. A few days ago, when he returned, he sent my wife home with a gift for me that he purchased in the shops near his family's home.



Not sure how authentic they are, but they sure look like licensed merchandise. Dakar on all the labels, tags, even the buttons on the polo shirt!



I cannot describe how happy I was when I opened the gift bag. The fact that he was thousands of miles away, wandering around in shops with his family and thought of me - the Dakar nut husband of a coworker - and bought them (only to drag them thousands of miles home) is just so cool.

Alberto will never see this, so I'll have to tell him in person but - Thanks mate, best gift I've received in a very long time.