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

[frostyuk]

this was on mcn uk apologies if its already been posted:

"Cyril Despres will be spending this evening in the marathon stage bivouac changing his engine after suffering major gear box issues on the seventh stage of the Dakar today.

With the race entering the marathon stage, Despres and all the other motorcyclists will be spending the night in a completely separate bivouac 150km from the main sight, where no outside assistance is allowed.

Despres, a former motorcycle mechanic, is however able to get assistance from other competitors and will be calling on help from his support rider and water carrier Ruben Faria to help with the engine change.

However despite speculation that it would be Faria that will be donating his engine, MCN can confirm that it will be Polish rider Marek Dabrowski who will swap engines with Despres. Dabrowski is a top rider with seven Dakar finishes to his credit and a best result of 11th, but is currently down in 72nd place and unable to run at his normal pace due to injury.

Speaking to MCN, KTM team manager Alex Doringer said: “Cyril has started work on the engine change already. It wasn’t a pre-agreed with the team, but Marek has not been able to ride like we know he can so it was just a case of making a phone call.”

Despres will be hit with a 15m time penalty for making the change meaning that by the time he starts tomorrows stage eight he will be 29m 07s behind leader Olivier Pain.

KTM had almost certainly planned to make a tactical engine change on the rest day, but now face the dilemma of whether they will still do that as a second engine change comes with a significantly increased time penalty of 45 minutes.

Under rules for pre selected elite riders, KTM can make a request to have Despres’ starting position for tomorrows stage moved up. He is currently set to start the stage in 34th, but it’s likely he will actually get away at around the 25 mark."

[640 Armageddon]

I think at the end they will put the trucks on the same track and then it's a no brainer what will happen ...
Hope they prove me wrong

[drgunther]

Originally Posted by Brodovitch

Robbie Gordon's "interesting" line selection



Maybe throwing the helmet at Kellon didn't work very well

Bloody effin' hell, that engine sounds like it is hating everything around it! =)

Originally Posted by Brodovitch

No I think they don't, but Cyril's deficit of having only a 4 speed gearbox will be next to null for only 100+ something kms of Special. He was losing 3 minutes per WP to Kurt yesterday, so he loses another 6-7 minutes to the top riders today, till he brings it in to Rest Day and a fresh engine. Makes sense

That would make sense if he didn't swap engines, and even if he did swap the engines back (CDP gets the broken gearbox) the seals are still broken (we saw the photographs of bikes being picked apart yesterday) and he still has the 15 minute penalty.

[Brodovitch]

Originally Posted by Balkan Boy

That engine is a ticking bomb.
You can't have a 'lightly damaged' gearbox and continue racing. Something has to be rattling in there.

It is. On the other hand, maybe by draining the oil a few times he hopes whatever has come loose is just sitting at the bottom of the gearbox. He's a pretty adept mechanic, probably knows the sxf motor inside and out

I once nursed a busted EXC about a 100+ kms -stuck in 3rd- back to the bivvy. when we split the cases, turns out that the 3-4 busted teeth had settled nicely at the bottom, my mechanic chewed my ass off for retiring, said I could have done the special only in 3rd - it would have lasted fine the whole day- and swap another engine for the next day

Damn him, grumpy old ex-enduro champ

[Aussie66]

Never see the old guard trusting blindly on road books ?

What a load of BS, the old guard is so fast opening the tracks because of that.

Tell me who has opened the track and kept his lead at this Dakar?

Comments from CD in the same regard, the new guys don't open tracks with speed. (Yet)

I think it is a matter of time before they do, its experience and gaining faith with the makers of the roads books and reading the zero cars tracks.

[Brodovitch]

Originally Posted by drgunther

That would make sense if he didn't swap engines, and even if he did swap the engines back (CDP gets the broken gearbox) the seals are still broken (we saw the photographs of bikes being picked apart yesterday) and he still has the 15 minute penalty.

I'm pretty sure the ASO news bite will go something like "Cyril was about to change his engine, but when he learned of the change of the route decided to keep his in". We will never know if the seal was broken, and even if it was there will probably be a special ASO arbitration that states the engine was not actually changed, so no 15 minute penalty. Or something like that. In french

[Flood]

Originally Posted by 640 Armageddon

Yeap, I thnk they said that CD changed his mind during the engine change and he put back the old one.
Uncofirmed yet

What? Where did you hear this, I totally missed that?

[pebble35]

Originally Posted by EKIN

Lyndon once again going above and beyond.

Emotions of loosing a fellow rider
Altitude sickness
Bike challenges
Cold and wet
Dust
No crew.

He still takes the time to give all of us a call. He needs a good night sleep. He also needs a good day tomorrow. He did not sound disappointed at all the first special was cancelled

Cold and wet - he'll feel at home then !

[drgunther]

Originally Posted by Brodovitch

I'm pretty sure the ASO news bite will go something like "Cyril was about to change his engine, but when he learned of the change of the route decided to keep his in". We will never know if the seal was broken, and even if it was there will probably be a special ASO arbitration that states the engine was not actually changed, so no 15 minute penalty. Or something like that. In french

That's be just... awesome. And CDP would've spent a lot of extra time wrenching the old engine back into his bike. Poor sod. =/ But then again, none of us know (I assume) how far he got with the swap, although looking at the picture I personally find it quite hard do judge how far along they got with the swap... Mostly because when I try to find out of there's an engine in CDPs bike I lay my eyes on man parts... gosh darn!

[drgunther]

Just rechecked the tv schedules for stage 8 and these are my findings:

12:th
@ 17:40 (UTC/GMT) - France 4 (Le Dakar)
@ 18:15 (UTC/GMT) - Eurosport 2 (Live - Interviews)
@ 22:00 (UTC/GMT) - Eurosport 1 (Highlights)

13:th
@ 00:26 (UTC/GMT) - Eurosport 1 (Highlights)
@ 01:05 (UTC/GMT) - France 2 (Bivouac)

[Aussie66]

Originally Posted by Vicks

Doubt that a privateer "helping" out KTM's top rider is remebered/benefitted for a lifetime by the corporate.

why am i reminded of a certain Luca Manca from last year ??

Dabrowski is not a true privateer. The team has a professional set-up major sponsors, KTM is one of those sponsors as bikes are delivered at discounted rates. Team Orlen takes part in most rallies. Great guys but hardly privateer effort. I think Kuba was offered a job as WC for the factory team and declined as this meant he would not have a shot at winning.

A business decision, an emotional business decision made by Marek.

[Brodovitch]

Originally Posted by Aussie66

Never see the old guard trusting blindly on road books ?

What a load of BS, the old guard is so fast opening the tracks because of that.

Tell me who has opened the track and kept his lead at this Dakar?

Comments from CD in the same regard, the new guys don't open tracks with speed. (Yet)

I think it is a matter of time before they do, its experience and gaining faith with the makers of the roads books and reading the zero cars tracks.

Not sure if you're replying to what I posted earlier, maybe I didn't phrase it well. The old guard have a 6th sense of sniffing out the course according to "how" the RB is written. Everyone writing an RB has his own "language", for lack of a better term. I believe there is an advantage when racing, of "learning" how a specific person writes a route. The new guys don't have that added experience yet, just a matter of getting a few more Dakars under their belt.

And by trusting blindly, I don't just mean the navigational info on the roadbook but also the dangers marked

As to who has has opened and led, I think going back to last year, either Cyril or Marc or both won at least one stage whilst opening. No others though, I can't be bothered to go and check the stages

I still think the new guys do open with speed, lots of aggressive speed, till they make a mistake that bites them hard.

Maybe what I meant is that the young guns mistakenly trust their abilitiy to read the RB blindly

[Aussie66]

Originally Posted by Balkan Boy

That engine is a ticking bomb.
You can't have a 'lightly damaged' gearbox and continue racing. Something has to be rattling in there.

Bent fork selector, maybe drain oil and no bits came out. 100 scenario's, risky.

[orlando_orange]

Late of the bivouac this morning after a partial engine swap - currently on the gf's ipad but will be downsizing again to my phone for the day. Going to be a long stage for me....

Sooooo whats the official line on cdp? Did he change the engine or not? I would have thought even with te first part cancelled his bike is still 50/50 on getting to the end with the old engine

[Aussie66]

Check on that Brodo.

The old guard rides road book and trusts it 100% incl the !!! cautions.

The new guys have to learn this and there is no quick school for this other than opening and learning.