2013 Dakar Cliff Notes thread

[Flood]

Originally Posted by Flood

RG doesn't disappoint

Originally Posted by Stagehand

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Dakar 2013, 12th Stage , Fiambala - Copiapo
715 km stage (447 miles) including 319 km special test

Barreda third. Tenth podium place for Husqvarna Rallye Team by Speedbrain.
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High speeds throughout and a lot navigation made the twelfth stage of the Dakar, from Fiambala to Copiapo a tough one. Joan "Bang Bang" Barreda proved to be the best of the Husqvarna Rallye Team by Speedbrain taking third place on the day, and bringing the team its tenth podium place out of the twelve stages contested so far. Joan, who led throughout the race made a slight navigational error which dropped him down into third place finishing just three minutes behind winner Verhoeven.

Alessandro Botturi, on the other hand, had a day worth forgetting. After holding seventh place for the first half of the race, the rider lost a lot of time looking for the way point. Alessandro finished fourteen minutes behind the leader, but now runs the risk of being penalized with a one hour penalty for failure to pass Way Point 13.

Paulo Goncalves had a fairly lacklustre day, opening the track for the other riders after starting from second position. He came in sixteenth, ten minutes behind the winner.

Tomorrow sees the penultimate stage of the rally from Copiapo to La Serena including 441 km special test (275 miles) and a total distance of 735 km (460 miles). The last real stage before they roll into Santiago.

Joan Barreda: “I really pushed hard right from the start today, and I lead the way for quite a stretch. Then I made a slight navigational error and lost a few minutes, but I managed to pull it back almost straight away. I’m pleased with my race today.”

Paulo Goncalves: “It was difficult to open a race like today’s. I started out from second, and was like a hare to the other greyhounds that were in chase. Anyway, I’m fairly pleased with my race and I didn’t make any significant mistakes.”

Alessandro Botturi: ”I’m really disappointed. Everything went really well until halfway through the race. Then I lost patience when I couldn’t find the right route and I missed a way point which will cost me a one hour penalty. Today I threw away practically everything…..a shame.”


Result Stage 12 (unofficial):
1. Verhoeven (NLD, Yamaha) 3h49m15s
2. Faria (PRT, KTM) +00:01:38
3. Joan Barreda (ESP, Husqvarna Rallye Team by Speedbrain) +00:03:01
4. Duclos (FRA, Sherco) +00:03:17
5. Rodrigues (PRT, Honda) +00:03:35
16. Paulo Goncalves (PRT, Husqvarna Rallye Team by Speedbrain) +00:10:39
20. Alessandro Botturi (ITA, Husqvarna Rallye Team by Speedbrain) +00:14:35
23. Matt Fish (AUS, Husqvarna Rallye Team by Speedbrain) +00:17:36

Overall after Stage 12 (unofficial):
1. Despres (FRA, KTM) 37h46m59s
2. Faria (PRT, KTM) +00:05:39
3. Lopez (CHL, KTM) +00:13:40
4. Jakes (SVK, KTM) +00:20:16
5. Alessandro Botturi (ITA, Husqvarna Rallye Team by Speedbrain) +00:34:52
12. Paulo Goncalves (PRT, Husqvarna Rallye Team by Speedbrain) +01:29:42
20. Joan Barreda (ESP, Husqvarna Rallye Team by Speedbrain) +03:05:33
80.+ Matt Fish (AUS, Husqvarna Rallye Team by Speedbrain) +25:07:02
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[Flood]

Originally Posted by 8340SU

So Faria stops at refueling and his rim is not good. Someone offers him a new wheel, he refuses and take the risk of doing the rest of the special. He tell this to Cyril.
The Alien, master strategist, decides to help his mate. What does he do? He let the boys go up front and they have hard time with the navigation. They are all a bit lost. Chaleco is one of them, he loses time. In the meantime he tells Caselli to slowdown, and explain to him wtf is happening.

Faria, with the broken rim gets to be 2nd in the special, and gains 3 minutes on Chaleco.

Well done Cyril, muddyboy
I've just forgot all the mud situation.

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[Flood]

Originally Posted by ric678

Dakar.com

At the end of the day, Cyril Despres has kept the initiative in the general standings with a lead of 5'39" over his team-mate Ruben Faria. Francisco Lopez has come back to within 13'40" of KTM rider No. 1 and Ivan Jakes, in fourth, trails the leader by 20'16". The leading Husqvarna rider, Alesandro Botturi - twentieth to finish today - lies 34'52" behind the Frenchman, whilst Juan Pedrero Garcia has a deficit of 41'14" on Despres. Olivier Pain, the first rider after the gap increases to over an hour, occupies seventh place, ahead of today's special stage winner, Dutchman Frans Verhoeven, 1:05'22" behind the leader.

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[PackMule]

Originally Posted by redhat

ASO did their best to make a mess of tomorrow's WP's, but here is my try


The day starts with 90km connection, followed by refuel and start @ 90:30 local
WP1 @ 42 km
WP2 and CP1 @ 70km
WP3 @ 112km
WP4 @ 139km
WP5 and CP2 @ 154km
CP3 and WP6 @ 164km
WP7 @ 192km
CP4 @ 212km
WP8 @ CP4 or 222km
Stage neutralisation and refuel @ 245km
WP9 @ 277km (in neutralisation??)
End of neutralisation @ 306km
WP10 @ 325km
WP11 @ 360km
WP12 @ 385km
CP5 @ 417km
Finish and refuel @ 441km

This followed by 204km connection for a total of 735km

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[PackMule]

Originally Posted by misc

For those who didn't find the button or failing browsers

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[PackMule]

Race director Etienne Lavigne jumping in when work needs to be done. How many executives like this do you know?

Originally Posted by Myway

uhmmm,

[PackMule]

Originally Posted by Flood

From the chase-the-race guys:



"Lyndon Poskitt this morning on good form but needed pain killers from us for his foot."

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[Flood]

Originally Posted by Stagehand

Cyrils blog:

On today’s stage at the refuelling my team-mate Ruben (Faria) arrived and signalled to me that he had a problem with his wheel. Before I started the second part of the special stage I had about 20 seconds to dig out my spoke key from my kit and throw it over to Ruben. Then I started to race and I thought to myself – “I hope I don’t need that key later or I’ll be in trouble”.

I was taking care of my engine and conserving some energy on the stage because I knew towards the end there would be lots of navigation in the dunes. So the chance came for me to help out Ruben and pay something back for all he has done for me as a team-mate. For Ruben to be more sure of his second place in the overall timings I knew it would be helpful it I took things nice and easy at the front of the race.

Ruben was chasing Chaleco (Lopez) who was riding on my rear wheel so I thought I would take down my speed and let him pass. So Chaleco, Goncalves and Barreda all came past me and then it was up to them to navigate. I had a front row seat to watch them struggling to find the route in the dunes and all the while I knew Ruben must be making up time.

The Dakar is a race that you must respect until the very finish but it was satisfying to be able to exert some control on today’s stage. Today we were the bosses because we decided something and it worked.

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[PackMule]

It was clear from the timing sheets that something dramatic had happened to Lyndon in the first sector of today's stage, but no one in cyberspace could have imagined how close his rally came to being over. Lesser men would not have been able to repair the damage and bring it home (on pace, no less, once he got going again). We didn't have an interview planned, but I was able to catch Lyndon on his call in and have a chat -- glad I did! Go "Inside the Helmet" as Lyndon talks about what was going through his mind both out on the piste, and at the end of the stage. Brilliant stuff.






Direct download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/rallyraidio/13D16.mp3


---------------------------

Public Radio fundraising notice: (Thanks to those who have already chipped in! We're about 3/4 to our goal.)

Last year, through the generosity of the listeners, we were able to cover the cost of Neduro's phone bill for the communication costs to RallyRAIDio and ADVRider throughout the Dakar. If you've enjoyed Lyndon's call ins and interviews on this edition, consider chipping in a few $$, € €, or ££ toward the cause. Many hands make light work, and based on our experience with Ned last year, the tab will run handily into 4-digit territory (sans decimals). It would be wonderful if we could take this burden off of Lyndon's shoulders.

For those so inclined,


RallyRAIDio @ g mail . com (no spaces) is the RallyRAIDio email addy to which paypal can be sent.


Thanks for your support.

[PackMule]

Originally Posted by Brodovitch

Wow. Just wow. After all the contenders and their fighting words and intentions this year, the top 5 becomes an all KTM affair. Make of that what you will. Riders? Machine? team? Maybe - most possibly- a combination of all three.

Gutted to see Botturi slide down the sheets after missing a waypoint (I didn't quite understand why) but, once again, this race rewards the concept of The Team, instead of just the rider or the machine. And The Team to beat is KTM. Hopefully, with Husky/SpeedBrain, HRC and Yamaha committed to this race, we can only hope they keep learning and taking notes, and here's to a brilliant 2014 edition with more upsets, more varied stage winners and -if all goes well- a new Dakar winner.,,

Yeah, I hear you say that there is still a stage and a half, but after witnessing Le Patron's strategy today, can there really be any doubt left? A worthy title for team orange & Cyril once again, I am hoping this display of race craft can only inspire the other teams, get them thinking hard and make them work

Right, I'm off to get some rest, and happy to be riding orange. Ever since my first SuperCompetition 620 (yeah that's what EXC's were called back in '95), and witnessing Heinz' purple Dakar machine, I have rooted for this team, a David amongst Goliaths when it first dared enter the Dakar... 18 years on, who would have guessed. More power to them, they are a case study in how to dominate

rant over, catch you all tomorrow

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[PackMule]

Originally Posted by 8340SU

from here

Originally Posted by 8340SU

Honda's return thwarted (in spanish)


Portugal's Helder Rodrigues wanted to be more than the companion Despres and Coma on the podium, as he had done the last two years. He won the World Rally Championship in 2011 and wanted to gain prominence in the Dakar in this edition. Not surprisingly, came riding a Honda, a CRF 450 Rally, developed especially for the return of the official Japanese team. But his reappearance in Dakar, 24 years later, has been more of a disaster. Rodrigues began to climb down the second day, the first of open desert. When rolling with the fourth fastest time, started having problems with gasoline and was forced to slow down to avoid running out of fuel before the end of the special. "I lost a lot of time," he recalls. He yielded to the winner ten minutes, Barreda. And he stayed with the 15th best time, not much. The worst thing is that faults have occurred since. Just a day after that the Portuguese, 33, returned to have problems with the fuel pump. On arrival in Nazca, had given another 25 minutes over Francisco Lopez, the best of the day. "In just two days the Dakar me more complicated than in recent years," conceded heartbroken.

"Then, little by little, I was recovering. And when I was skimming the podium I again had a breakdown and I lost everything, "he says. It was two days ago when a cable broke, the bike stopped and he lost 48 minutes to fix it: "The plan was to attack and I was doing. I was flying, had committed no error in navigation, was quick in rocky areas and in the dunes, "he recalled. But, again, something went wrong. Is disappointed. He aspired to much more and hoped that six months would be sufficient for a powerful factory as Honda. But that has not happened.

"It's all new. And this bike is very young. We need more time to develop the bike. In half a year we could not do it, we don't compete in the Dakar for a long time and we lack experience. Our first victory was to be at the start, in Lima, "said Katsumi Yamazaki, project leader for Honda Dakar, which was already the head of command when the factory winged competed from 1981 to 1989. In the 80 Honda won four titles. To return to winning they need more time, at least. "The Dakar is special. The tests can not play stages of 800 kilometers or about 600 special. We have gathered a lot of information and become stronger, "he adds. "We wanted to get on the podium, but it became impossible," says team manager, Henk Hellegers, frustrated, that does not hide the expectations that the project raised. What needs to improve? "Everything," says the Japanese. "You have to work on the durability of the bike", he assumes, aware of the significance that is if one is to be competitive in the Dakar. "You have to work hard. And in everything, "adds Rodrigues laconic.

Originally Posted by 8340SU

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[PackMule]

Originally Posted by XSpearsX

Going to be a long night waiting for Luis.

Originally Posted by neduro

Heard via SMS from Dave that he may have a blown head gasket in the dunes.

Potentially fixable. If he's out of water, the Dakar sweep truck will provide that...

Damn does Luis go the long way around the Dakar!

Cliff Notes current through here: http://advrider.com/forums/showthrea...2309&page=1023

[Flood]

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...

[kaia]

Dakar.com has finished up adding photos from stage 11. i've re-posted everything over in the Dakar 2013 Media thread. over a hundred awesome photos!



#32 - IVAN JAKES (SVK)



#9 - OLIVIER PAIN (FRA)



#314 - BORIS GARAFULIC (CHL) / GILLES PICARD (FRA)



#306 - LUCIO EZEQUIEL ÁLVAREZ (ARG) / BERNARDO ROLANDO GRAUE (ARG)



#36 - LAIA SANZ (ESP)



#327 - BALAZS SZALAY (HUN) / LASZLO BUNKOCZI (HUN)



#150 - LUIS BELAUSTEGUI (ARG)






#277 - SAREL VAN BILJON (ZAF)



#266 - GASTÓN GONZÁLEZ (ARG)



#35 - THOMAS BERGLUND (SWE)
#103 - MARIO PATRAO (PRT)
#28 - JEAN DE AZEVEDO (BRA)



#102 - DAVID REEVE (ZMB)



#33 - JOHNNY CAMPBELL (USA)



tldr; i've re-posted everything over in the Dakar 2013 Media thread.

[kaia]

Originally Posted by kaia

Dakar.com photos from stage 12. i've cross-posted everything they've put up so far to the Dakar 2013 Media thread.








#315 - ROBBY GORDON (USA) / KELLON WALCH (USA)



#259 - CAMÉLIA LIPAROTI (ITA)



#53 - FRANK VERHOESTRAETE (BEL)














tldr; i've cross-posted everything they've put up so far to the Dakar 2013 Media thread.

Originally Posted by kaia

Dakar.com has a bunch of photos for each stage that they're not showing in the main "photos" area... slightly hidden. posted over in the Dakar 2013 Media thread just for you!

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