Pic: www.Webventure.com.br
Pic: www.Webventure.com.br
Phil not far from the bad erosion
Pic: www.Webventure.com.br
I’m so glad I saw that hole on the road book. The last 70km of the special becomes a lot faster again, interspaced by a series of terrible log bridges radar zones and small creeks.
Even log bridges are not so bad any more, unless they are long. In most of the cases the faster you go the better it is, because you can keep your line, but if you make a mistake it’s almost certainly going to be a stretcher case.
I never got any good pictures of these bridges, but here is the one that took out hotshot rider Rodrigo Caballero last year.
Quite a few were actually quite good as well, and some of them were radar zones, so we had to go slowly over them anyway.
Marc Coma going over a bridge in a radar zone. You can see he is looking around.
Pic: www.Webventure.com.br
I end up close to a quad in this radar zone, he slowed a little inadvertently allowing me to draw alongside him, so we ride together for a while. Now you need to know that though I am friendly enough with the guys off their quads it is quite the opposite on any special. I had been lumped with three quads since the beginning of the stage and I was tired of eating all their dust. The day before two of the barstards had roosted me badly and forced me to stop to avoid taking myself out in their dust. There is
no way in hell I was now going to let this guy get in front of me again, I can see the next bit is going to be a fast bit and I am going to get in front. We look at each other just before the end of the radar zone, and think the same thing. GO! We both wring the necks of our bikes. The crowd whoop at us as we accelerate past them.
I get the inside of the first right hand curve as we hit fourth and I burst ahead over a hard road surface covered in marble-sized pebbles. I feel the bike power slide to the left and I let the back wheel go over a bit further, its soft, and I know the poor guy is almost definitely getting a mouthful of roost. Poetic justice. Okay I admit it feels delicious. There is no time to look back and I gun it, keeping low and fast, to stay ahead. I’m really racing now. Urgently looking for the next caution, I see it’s a bridge, a double caution indicating holes in it. No way in hell am I going to slow down for it. If that quad catches me now, I will be done over big time.
There is a bit of a ramp at the beginning and I manage jump the whole thing. Exhilarating. And the next one as well. This is really splendid riding. I end up doing about 50km pinned like this, oil pissing out of the filtered breather and all over my left boot. At one point there is this long bridge, like the one in the picture above, only it’s a good 15m long with a couple of pillars in the river supporting long, twisting sets of tree-trunks a car width apart, set in twos. There are three pairs of logs set end-to-end for each car wheel to go on, separated by a yawing gap in the middle. The left side is relatively straight and about half a meter wide so I decide to give it horns and hit it at high speed in fourth gear. There is a drop-off to the tree trunks which I ramp, bounce the bike off the first trunk clear over the centre pillar in the middle which juts above the level of the logs. The bike lands neatly on the second two logs but bounces up again propelling me forward over the bars. I wrench the throttle and come down on last group of trunks at a bit of an angle but the spinning back wheel saves the day and I zoom onto the white gravel road on the far side. This all happens so fast, there is virtually no time to be shocked at what I’ve just done because I’m back up to 145 km/hr in no time. Almost immediately, I find myself power slide through the next sweeping curve, and it stays like this for miles. Even on the straight bits it’s challenging but fun high speed stuff, the bike bucking and swaying, like a springbok beneath me in the sand and gravel patches.
After the terror of the log bridges I find the mataburros to be quite tame, almost friendly in their familiarity. Except the last one which has been broken by a quad. There are a couple of planks sticking up sideways like javelins threatening to skewer one of us. I’m shocked by how dangerous this is, there is just enough clearance to make it past on a bike, the only way to get across is to jump the mataburro because of the hole created by the missing planks. Shortly after that I pass an official on a bicycle coming the other way, I guess to fix it. Good on him.
I ride in style through the flying finish, feeling on top of the world. I think this has been the best riding experience of my life. It was really, really fantastic. I need to take it easy from now on because the bike has to last. It’s probably quite low on oil now, and it’s hard to change gears because there is so much oil all over my left boot.
Ze Helio did better today too.
Pic: www.Webventure.com.br
After knocking a whole in his BMW’s oil cooler yesterday he lost all his oil and his engine. I think he just took the 2.5 hour penalty and just started again this morning. Of course he would be out of the world-championship, but not the Brazilian championship. He started behind me and blasted past me about half way through the stage. I think he passed something like 30 guys today. He really is an awesome rider.
Pic: www.Webventure.com.br
The long liaison is unbelievably hot. Riding through air that actually burns my face little. It is hellish. I have to stop every 50 km or so to have a drink and cool down. At the one place I stop at seems remarkably similar to any little
dorp in the northern Cape. Only the bottle store is not as popular. It is uncanny, I watch a car cruising past with some young guys looking for talent in it, but it’s pumping out music that sounds like Kurt Darren – I kid you not – in Portuguese! :imaposer: No way, I tell myself. Way. Where is DD? He won’t believe me.
Everyone out in these parts seem quite poor, but lacking nothing. Not as desperate as you see in Africa. People have been waving at me going through all the little towns, talking to me at the refuel stations.
They take photos too of me, of my bike. All the time. I’m getting used to it. They such nice people, it’s so refreshing.
Eventually I make it to Dianàpolis, a friendly little
platteland-type town, full of relatively poor, yet excited Brazilians. They’re always excited.
I’m tired but very happy to be here.
Pic: www.Webventure.com.br
It was an awesome stage today.
Pic: www.Webventure.com.br
I’m and not the only one to be happy.
Marieta Moraes is over the moon at finishing this tough stage.
Pic: www.Webventure.com.br
She is a heroine in Brazil.
It has been a long day out on the road too for the support guys.
I look for our camp and cars in our bivouac and find only DD, jealously guarding a piece of ground from the other support crews still coming in. The Kombi is still out there on the road somewhere.
By hierdie tyd was my arme maatjie DD die moer in met die ander kerels (3Drink kan self vir julle later verduidelik). Hy was rerig reg om iemand te hard bliksem
:laughing4:
The Uruguayan Sprinter’s trailer came off and rolled on route. Luckily they were able to put it all back together again with duct tape, and Marcello was road-side welding a new tow bar on. WTF??
Phil and Dave rock up about an hour later and are really happy to be home too. They found it tricky too.
We get a rare moment to relax and take in the moment.
We shower in some stables that afternoon, its a pretty rough setup. Randall makes us some pasta tonight becuase we are concerned about the local food quality. I get to talk to Kuba Przygonski at the briefing. He tells me there were five of the front guys who "jumped" that huge 5m erosion, you know, the one I saw earlier in the day with the broken bike being pulled out by two officials? I can't believe it.
He just nods back and says "Yes, only Marc Coma went around it, he was in front and saw it. The rest of us were riding in his dust and I saw it too late. Two of us including me broke our bikes on that jump, but we were still able to finish. It was terrible. One guy crashed but that was behind me. He is out with a broken collarbone." Holy moly, is that all? These guys are riding gods. Way, way out of my league. There is no way I would have survived something like that. :eek7:
Ludo comes into the briefing as well, with a brave face, having to be picked up by the helicopter after crashing. :'( Heartbreaking. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. He's a hero to me.
He later writes:
as you know, I had a good crash a couple days ago.
This is all my fault, I was riding very good, the best in a few years and was surprising myself. I always felt in control and smooth.
The day before, I had some gasoline problems that got me passed by a couple guys and then the bike started to work again but there was so much dust that I chose to play it safe and stay behind them for the remaining 40 miles of the day.
The next day, I started in 14th and was riding real good real soon. Then I found Jaime Prohens from Chile and one of his buddy, both stuck and crashed down in a big hole/erosion.
One of them had a broken leg so I parked my bike and helped them. I did activate the emergency beacon for them and grabbed my radio to alert the organization. My two buddies Dimas and Tagino who were starting after me, stopped for a mn and then kept going as we didn't need them.
Once all was set up for the two Chilenos to wait for the helicopter, I did get going as well.
I caught Tagino really quickly and then caught Dimas a bit later. I stayed in Dimas dust for like 80kms, but instead of playing it safe like the day before, I did a stupid thing. I got frustrated for slowing down so much and decided to pass Dimas. We were only 20 miles from the refuel so I could have just stayed there and just pass him then. Instead, right after a radar zone, he was so close to me that I chose to go for it. He was finally at striking distance when in the next curve, he hit the brakes really hard cos' it was a curve kind of closing in toward the end of it and I found myself in a big cloud of fesh fesh sand dust, not seeing anything. Once the vision cleared ok, I was on the edge of the trail about to hit a huge rock.
The next thing I remember is my teammate and friend Ramon Volkart above me, helping me to wake up. Tagino was with him also. It took me a few mn to remember what happened and I had apparently passed out for like 5mn.
They were already on the radio with the organizers and had a helicopter on its way.
I was hurting all over, and breathing was painful. Instantly I knew the collarbone was broken and some ribs felt like they were as well.
We had an hour flight to the next town with what resembled an hospital with very limited equipment but the organizer's doctors were always there with us. Once we finished the complete check up and saw on the Xrays that only my collarbone was broken (badly) , I was given some anti-inflammatory and a ride back to the bivouac.
I was sad to have finished this rally so soon, but I deserve this one completely. I should have been more patient...I was not.
In Rally racing, mistakes can be very costly. Once again, I am lucky to have escaped with only this.
Later at the bivouac, when my equipment got delivered, we inspected my Arai Helmet. It clearly is out of service and I am glad I was wearing this brand as I believe they make the safest helmets in the world. My Leatt brace was broken and seeing the marks on my neck, on my shoulders and on my face, I can say that this device has saved my life for the third time. I have chosen a few years ago to never ride an off-road motorcycle without wearing one and this is the smartest thing one can do. Don't settle for another brand, none of them can deliver what the Leatt does....None!
Cheers all, I'm about to fly out of Sao Paulo back to San Diego, time for Surgery with Dr Murphy to plate that collarbone and my buddies at Rehab United for all the rehab work.
A few days later we learn he/s fractured his collarbone in five places!
We learn that 16 people did not finish the stage, quite few of them injured.
I'm really pleased with the day's result:
I learn I have climbed 20 places on the stage to 31st and came 8th in my class, up four places. Thats more like it! Phil also did really well, climbing 10 places.
Of course looking at the overall results you can see the importance of consistently over my fast days in between slow days. All of us went up today, although Im sure some it had to do with the number of riders who did not make it. This rally was getting serious.
Tomorrow will have a trails section, and is one of the most difficult days of the rally. Lets hope it goes as well as it did today.
