Great writing Kinesis - really get the feel of the event! :thumleft:
6 DAYS IN THE SAND! :) My 2000km CHALLENGE in the EMPTY Quarter!
- Thread starter Kenisis
- Start date
CAR6850
Race Dog
Lekr - what name am I looking for on the timesheets? :thumleft:
Kenisis
Race Dog
Alan WilkinsonDiesel & Dust said:
Kenisis
Race Dog
Day 2 leg 2 “ADNOC”
Total Distance : 434.33 KM
Liason : 135.3 Km
Special Distance : 283.35 KM
Liason : 15.68 Km
The Starting List
I woke up after a very restless nights sleep. I think I got to sleep around 2 am after listening to a generator and the racket the mechanics next door to me were making to get the 2 BMW`s back into racing shape. I woke up when they turned the generator off and I was ecstatic that I still had two hours sleep.
I woke up and I began my daily ritual of downing a litre of water with my suppliments and then had my oats for breakfast followed by my Cytomax! If you ever want to try out a rally like this I would most certainly suggest Cytomax! I had two. One is for hydration and energy and the other is for Recovery.
I went through to our pit area and got ready for our long Liason. The longest of the rally. I must admit I was not looking forward to it. So I thought I would be clever and I would use my i-phone for music on my journey. To sad that the Apple earphones are so crappy that I could barely make out the music on the way.
We got under way with our Liason and were to ride to the town of Liwa some 95km away. About half way through I started bursting for a pee and I figured I would hold it till I got to the fuelling station in Liwa. Suddenly I became aware how long distance actually is. After about 10km`s I had to pull over to relieve myself. So I found a spot and turned off the road and barreled to a spot that I could take a leak. Jumped off my bike and as I started I was joined by two other competitors. It would seem they had no idea where they were going and needed me to lead them to the Start!
We made it to the fuel station in Liwa where we all filled up with fuel and some of us bought some water and a snack bar thingy for lunch. We made it to the start with plenty of time to spare. A couple of us watched all the big guns take off and topped that off with nonchalant chit chatter.
We got to our starting times and we were off.
Pictures courtesy of MCH Photography
I started slow and soon realized that I was being overly cautious and I could not shake the feeling that I was out of my depth. I think that feeling was compounded by the fact that the last time I raced while on very little sleep I fell and broke my collar bone. I made a pact with myself that went something like this, “It`s a Challenge, in order to succeed I need to Finish! Not Fall but Finish!”
Shortly after getting going all the fast guys that had problems yesterday came blasting past me and I did my best to keep up where I could.
I crested a two storey dune and found that the back side of the Dune was about 150meters high. I stood up and I rode down the Dune hitting the bottom a little harder than I wanted to. Here was an important lesson that I had learnt. So for the future big dunes I had to throw down anchors 20 meters from the bottom. There were about three huge dunes that the angle at the bottom was close on 90 degrees because as you came down the uphill of the next dune started. The impact was so hard that it jar`s your entire body specially your shoulders and back. This accompanied by the fact that you become very intimate with the fuel tank and I kissed my navigation tower with each of these.
Pictures courtesy of MCH Photography
In one or two places I made some stupid riding errors which got the bike bogged down a bit. This called for me to unbury my bike and get going again. This was very taxing on me.
I made it to the Service and I asked Djilal how things were going with Sean and James. James seemed to be going well but Sean was hating his setup of his bike. Saying that the rear tank just has so much inertia that it is difficult to ride with any precision. Not that I would know what precision riding is about. I left the Fuel stop without seeing any one.
Pictures courtesy of MCH Photography
The dunes became very technical and there was lots of cresting of those dunes to be done. Through all of this I passed a lot of riders that were broken down in the desert. I stopped at the ones that were not giving a thumbs up and waving me on. I must admit I really felt sorry for these guys as it was hot on the bike and it would only be hotter standing around with no shade to be had in at least 100km`s
I came across Stephan Preuss who was riding a KTM660 Rallye. When I stopped with him to check if he was ok he was all smiles and asked if I had jumper leads? Sorry buddy, my Honda comes with that evil thing called a kick starter! He looked so fresh that he looked like he could run the rest of the way. Thankfully he decided to stay with his bike!
During the stage there were a lot of Sabkha`s. To explain to those that don’t know this is like a pan at the bottom of dunes. Some times upto 3 to 4 km`s long. They are nasty things because you think you can relax and then you hit a sand spit, a bump abything from a foot to 3 feet high which you don’t see. In these Sabkha`s there were many double cautions. I could only think what could happen if the road book did not have one in it!
At this point in the middle of the stage I distinctly remember how alone I felt! In the middle of nowhere and no one to be seen!
Pictures courtesy of MCH Photography
Going through one of these Sabkha`s I was distracted by a reflection to my left and I slowed to see if someone was signaling me. It must have been my imagination and about a minute later Dave Donald caught up to my signaling frantically so I stopped. It would seem he was in need of a smoke break! So Dave smoked his fag and I chomped on a Banana. Seems Smokes and banana`s are important.
We both went off and before long we came to PC 3. We checked in and drank some water and spoke crap to the marshals. The Marshal then says to me that Dave and I are the lucky ones that get to have them as an escort into the finish. I was told that they would meet us 5 km down the road as there was 3 nasty bowls for us to negotiate and then we would see them in a Sabkha. Luckily I had a little problem in the first bowl and then I came flying through the rest. It is amazing what you do if you see a commercial video camera in the middle of nowhere. You realize that that is the spot that they want to see you go down! Sorry Buddy no such footage for you.
I hit the Sabkha and the Jeep joined in behind me and I had that feeling like what happened in Topgear when they went to Vietnam with that monkey bike following them through the country and the one that had a problem had to ride the Monkey bike. Well that Jeep for me was my Monkey bike and F&%$ me sideways if I was going to let them take me in so I decided to hall ass! After every Sabkha and dune that I crested I got a little further away from it. That was until I stalled my bike to go down a Huge set of dunes. From the top it went about 80 meters down to a ledge or step and then down 100m down to another ledge. I was so focused on the area 5 meters in front of me that it suddenly dawned on me that I had still not hit the bottom and then as I crossed over the last ledge I saw I had about 130 meters to the bottom. This is where the bike stalled. I tried to Start it with the happy button and then tried to kick to no avail. The Jeep then stopped next to me on that 45 deg angle and asked if I was Ok, I was fine just frustrated. I wheeled the bike to the bottom and then found my problem. At that angle the bike ran out of fuel. So I balanced my tanks with the fuel and my Trusty Honda fired back into life!
From there I left these great marshals in my Dust. I tried my best to catch Dave but only managed to get to him at the end of the stage!
Pictures courtesy of MCH Photography
I rode the last of the liason thinking hard about that day. I had not enjoyed myself. I was not sure if I wanted to continue at this point. Maybe I should take the next day off!
Pictures courtesy of MCH Photography
I rode back into the bivouac and parked my bike right at my tent. A friend of mine John Colson who was there to support his wife Tonya was there to greet me as they were in the tent next door. He offered to take my bike to the Gecko Honda pits. I stripped down and chugged down some water and chow`d on some biltong.
I walked over to Sean and he asked me how I was. I did not allude to anything but I think he sensed my un happiness. We sat and chatted and he was telling me that I am doing well. A finish is an excellent thing. That little chat Sunshine, was probably what I needed right then, thanks!
I made some dinner which I ate with John and Tonya. This would prove to be a time where John being a Pilot would give me an impromptu GPS lesson. John Thanks for that it helped so much!
I went to bed with a plan that evening. I slept with earplugs in. Somewhere I had been told many years ago that it was bad to sleep with earplugs in but honestly it could not be as bad as not concentrating on a bike at speed and then falling! While I was trying to fall asleep I had a meeting with myself. I asked myself why am I doing this? I do it because I love riding bikes and even more so I love riding in the desert! I decided then that I should start enjoying the ride. So I should have fun!
Off to Sleep I went. Blissful sleep!
Leg 3 to Continue………………………………………………………
Day 2`s Results
Overall Standings after Day 2
Total Distance : 434.33 KM
Liason : 135.3 Km
Special Distance : 283.35 KM
Liason : 15.68 Km
The Starting List
I woke up after a very restless nights sleep. I think I got to sleep around 2 am after listening to a generator and the racket the mechanics next door to me were making to get the 2 BMW`s back into racing shape. I woke up when they turned the generator off and I was ecstatic that I still had two hours sleep.
I woke up and I began my daily ritual of downing a litre of water with my suppliments and then had my oats for breakfast followed by my Cytomax! If you ever want to try out a rally like this I would most certainly suggest Cytomax! I had two. One is for hydration and energy and the other is for Recovery.
I went through to our pit area and got ready for our long Liason. The longest of the rally. I must admit I was not looking forward to it. So I thought I would be clever and I would use my i-phone for music on my journey. To sad that the Apple earphones are so crappy that I could barely make out the music on the way.
We got under way with our Liason and were to ride to the town of Liwa some 95km away. About half way through I started bursting for a pee and I figured I would hold it till I got to the fuelling station in Liwa. Suddenly I became aware how long distance actually is. After about 10km`s I had to pull over to relieve myself. So I found a spot and turned off the road and barreled to a spot that I could take a leak. Jumped off my bike and as I started I was joined by two other competitors. It would seem they had no idea where they were going and needed me to lead them to the Start!
We made it to the fuel station in Liwa where we all filled up with fuel and some of us bought some water and a snack bar thingy for lunch. We made it to the start with plenty of time to spare. A couple of us watched all the big guns take off and topped that off with nonchalant chit chatter.
We got to our starting times and we were off.
Pictures courtesy of MCH Photography
I started slow and soon realized that I was being overly cautious and I could not shake the feeling that I was out of my depth. I think that feeling was compounded by the fact that the last time I raced while on very little sleep I fell and broke my collar bone. I made a pact with myself that went something like this, “It`s a Challenge, in order to succeed I need to Finish! Not Fall but Finish!”
Shortly after getting going all the fast guys that had problems yesterday came blasting past me and I did my best to keep up where I could.
I crested a two storey dune and found that the back side of the Dune was about 150meters high. I stood up and I rode down the Dune hitting the bottom a little harder than I wanted to. Here was an important lesson that I had learnt. So for the future big dunes I had to throw down anchors 20 meters from the bottom. There were about three huge dunes that the angle at the bottom was close on 90 degrees because as you came down the uphill of the next dune started. The impact was so hard that it jar`s your entire body specially your shoulders and back. This accompanied by the fact that you become very intimate with the fuel tank and I kissed my navigation tower with each of these.
Pictures courtesy of MCH Photography
In one or two places I made some stupid riding errors which got the bike bogged down a bit. This called for me to unbury my bike and get going again. This was very taxing on me.
I made it to the Service and I asked Djilal how things were going with Sean and James. James seemed to be going well but Sean was hating his setup of his bike. Saying that the rear tank just has so much inertia that it is difficult to ride with any precision. Not that I would know what precision riding is about. I left the Fuel stop without seeing any one.
Pictures courtesy of MCH Photography
The dunes became very technical and there was lots of cresting of those dunes to be done. Through all of this I passed a lot of riders that were broken down in the desert. I stopped at the ones that were not giving a thumbs up and waving me on. I must admit I really felt sorry for these guys as it was hot on the bike and it would only be hotter standing around with no shade to be had in at least 100km`s
I came across Stephan Preuss who was riding a KTM660 Rallye. When I stopped with him to check if he was ok he was all smiles and asked if I had jumper leads? Sorry buddy, my Honda comes with that evil thing called a kick starter! He looked so fresh that he looked like he could run the rest of the way. Thankfully he decided to stay with his bike!
During the stage there were a lot of Sabkha`s. To explain to those that don’t know this is like a pan at the bottom of dunes. Some times upto 3 to 4 km`s long. They are nasty things because you think you can relax and then you hit a sand spit, a bump abything from a foot to 3 feet high which you don’t see. In these Sabkha`s there were many double cautions. I could only think what could happen if the road book did not have one in it!
At this point in the middle of the stage I distinctly remember how alone I felt! In the middle of nowhere and no one to be seen!
Pictures courtesy of MCH Photography
Going through one of these Sabkha`s I was distracted by a reflection to my left and I slowed to see if someone was signaling me. It must have been my imagination and about a minute later Dave Donald caught up to my signaling frantically so I stopped. It would seem he was in need of a smoke break! So Dave smoked his fag and I chomped on a Banana. Seems Smokes and banana`s are important.
We both went off and before long we came to PC 3. We checked in and drank some water and spoke crap to the marshals. The Marshal then says to me that Dave and I are the lucky ones that get to have them as an escort into the finish. I was told that they would meet us 5 km down the road as there was 3 nasty bowls for us to negotiate and then we would see them in a Sabkha. Luckily I had a little problem in the first bowl and then I came flying through the rest. It is amazing what you do if you see a commercial video camera in the middle of nowhere. You realize that that is the spot that they want to see you go down! Sorry Buddy no such footage for you.
I hit the Sabkha and the Jeep joined in behind me and I had that feeling like what happened in Topgear when they went to Vietnam with that monkey bike following them through the country and the one that had a problem had to ride the Monkey bike. Well that Jeep for me was my Monkey bike and F&%$ me sideways if I was going to let them take me in so I decided to hall ass! After every Sabkha and dune that I crested I got a little further away from it. That was until I stalled my bike to go down a Huge set of dunes. From the top it went about 80 meters down to a ledge or step and then down 100m down to another ledge. I was so focused on the area 5 meters in front of me that it suddenly dawned on me that I had still not hit the bottom and then as I crossed over the last ledge I saw I had about 130 meters to the bottom. This is where the bike stalled. I tried to Start it with the happy button and then tried to kick to no avail. The Jeep then stopped next to me on that 45 deg angle and asked if I was Ok, I was fine just frustrated. I wheeled the bike to the bottom and then found my problem. At that angle the bike ran out of fuel. So I balanced my tanks with the fuel and my Trusty Honda fired back into life!
From there I left these great marshals in my Dust. I tried my best to catch Dave but only managed to get to him at the end of the stage!
Pictures courtesy of MCH Photography
I rode the last of the liason thinking hard about that day. I had not enjoyed myself. I was not sure if I wanted to continue at this point. Maybe I should take the next day off!
Pictures courtesy of MCH Photography
I rode back into the bivouac and parked my bike right at my tent. A friend of mine John Colson who was there to support his wife Tonya was there to greet me as they were in the tent next door. He offered to take my bike to the Gecko Honda pits. I stripped down and chugged down some water and chow`d on some biltong.
I walked over to Sean and he asked me how I was. I did not allude to anything but I think he sensed my un happiness. We sat and chatted and he was telling me that I am doing well. A finish is an excellent thing. That little chat Sunshine, was probably what I needed right then, thanks!
I made some dinner which I ate with John and Tonya. This would prove to be a time where John being a Pilot would give me an impromptu GPS lesson. John Thanks for that it helped so much!
I went to bed with a plan that evening. I slept with earplugs in. Somewhere I had been told many years ago that it was bad to sleep with earplugs in but honestly it could not be as bad as not concentrating on a bike at speed and then falling! While I was trying to fall asleep I had a meeting with myself. I asked myself why am I doing this? I do it because I love riding bikes and even more so I love riding in the desert! I decided then that I should start enjoying the ride. So I should have fun!
Off to Sleep I went. Blissful sleep!
Leg 3 to Continue………………………………………………………
Day 2`s Results
Overall Standings after Day 2
superten
Race Dog
Great reading!
AgentO
Pack Dog
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2011
- Messages
- 50
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Cape Town, South Africa
- Bike
- KTM 690 Adventure
Excellent report, thanks for sharing. :thumleft:
Wow those pictures are brilliant too! :thumleft:
Wallpaper stuff:
Did you have to pay those guys for these?
Epic, bru!
Wallpaper stuff:
Did you have to pay those guys for these?
Epic, bru!
Kenisis
Race Dog
BlueBull2007 said:Wow those pictures are brilliant too! :thumleft:
Wallpaper stuff:
Did you have to pay those guys for these?
Not at all. I was warned tha some guys ask 500 Euro`s for set of pics. I owe Mario a beer or coffee when we meet again. I probably owe Myrian from MCH a lot more! He is a great photographer!
KTM Jagermeister
Pack Dog
Respect :headbang:
Well done on that stage Kinesis.... :thumleft:
Kenisis
Race Dog
Thanks boet. I must admit it was not nice coming in as the last rider in and being so slow. I realize now that i managed to get myself into what i thought was a good rhythm and as it turns out it was actually a slow rhythm. I was warned that this may happen but you think you will be ready to get going but in actual fact you just end up idling!letsgofishing said:
You made it in, that is all that counts :thumleft:
the ant
Race Dog
Gees! There I just lost a hour at work :biggrin:
This is not a frate report this is a flippin EPIC report!
RE FREAKING SPECT :thumleft:
This is not a frate report this is a flippin EPIC report!
RE FREAKING SPECT :thumleft:
alanB
Grey Hound
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2010
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- 6,776
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- Location
- Johannesburg
- Bike
- Husqvarna (all models)
Kenisis said:
I have a mate who is one of those natural athletes that just make you sick. The first time he ran the Comrades, long ago, he decided a few months before without training for it and still ran it in 6 hours 30 minitues odd
He's a very competitive guy whom I've known since the army.
Anyway he recently decided to do the Iron Man, - he's well into his 50's now. He finished in the top 25% without much training again
When I asked him what it was like, he said he was amused by all the young guys that sprinted away at the start, which he eventually passed gasping for breath later on. He said that they just didn't realise it was an endurance event and your time at the end is what matters, not at any point before that.
Its some wisdom, from an old campaigner that stuck in my brain :thumleft:
Thanks for a great RR. Its nail biting stuff.
Respect for tackling the real thing head on!
Would I?
Race Dog
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2009
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- 715
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- Location
- Tauranga - New Zealand
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Great RR. i am really enjoying this. :thumleft: :thumleft:
Keep it comming. :biggrin: :biggrin:
Keep it comming. :biggrin: :biggrin:
LanceSA
Race Dog
Fantastic read. I take my hat off to you!
Just a tip for listening to music with an iPhone - get the genuine iPhone earbud speakers. Wear them under a buff inside your helmet and they work perfectly for listening to music.
Just a tip for listening to music with an iPhone - get the genuine iPhone earbud speakers. Wear them under a buff inside your helmet and they work perfectly for listening to music.
Kenisis
Race Dog
A liason is normally a section between the Bivouac and the Start of the Special. It is timed but NOT a race. For example it may be 100km and they allow 2 hours for the journey. 50km/hr Average required but you may be able to do 100km/hr ave becuase it is on tar. Failure to meet the 2 hours will cause you to face a time penalty but not exclusion!See Duiwel said:
The Special is the actual race. so you have 283.3 km to complete in 8 hours. More than that and you face penalty or exclusion.
I hope that helps
See Duiwel said:
Further to Kenesis explanation, a liaison is also normally used to link the sections of a multi-day rally together. So sometimes you will get a liaison from the bivouac to the start of the special (start liaison), and sometimes a liaison between the end of the special to the bivvy (end liaison), sometimes even both or none. FIM protocol normally requires the pilots to get their machines under their own power along the liaisons as a requirement to finish a Day's stage. So if you were to breakdown, you could not be trailered to the finish line without being DQ'd or at least facing a large time penalty on your race time. It is permissable though to get outside assistance on a liaison, whereas on a special section, only other pilots are permitted to help you, no one else, not even your own pit crew.
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