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General Moto | Off-Topic Posts
Dakar has started...Yam 450 2 wheel in first!!
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[QUOTE="Tony Eeds, post: 711188, member: 32023"] [b][i]Here is Stage Two[/i][/b] :thumb: Stage 2 - 2 January 2004 - NARBONNE > CASTELLÓN Liaison 6 km Special 25 km Liaison 532 km Total 563 km Snow in Clermont-Ferrand, mud in Narbonne. Today's special was 25km staged around Narbonne, through the hillcrests of the Pays d*Oc just over the abbey of Fontfroide. The track was very technical. Nobody likes these short and wet European winter tracks where nothing can be won, but so much can be lost. Muddy conditions favored lighter bikes, and especially the two wheeled drive Yamaha WR 450 of Frenchman David Fretigne. Fretigne: "I clock the best time without really taking any risks. I didn't feel I was riding fast. Having a two-wheel drive bike helps a lot going out of bends. Winning the special and leading the overall is of course good. I don't think the going will be quite as twisty or muddy when we get to Africa. Still I was very impressed with how well the two-wheel drive system performed here. It allowed me to come out of the corners much quicker than I would normally have been able to and gave me much more stability on the straights. The hardest is yet to come however." Second on the day and fifteen seconds slower was Cyril Despres appeared to be loving these European stages in front of thousands of fans. "Once again, I was impressed by the huge crowd. This time, I felt like Gronholm or Makinen." Meanwhile, heavier bikes were a liability. Fabrizio Meoni on the KTM 950 finishing 11th, over 2 minutes back: "I'm 50% responsible, the other half is for the bike." American Paul Krause is the only other rider on the KTM 950 (that I know of), and he is currently in 44th. Interestingly, two wheel drive was also best in the car category. Jose-Maria Servia is a former Formula 1 racer and Dakar veteran who raced a very tricked out and cool two wheeled drive Schlesser-Ford buggy to first place. Servia: "We really went well all along the course and overtook 4 or 5 cars that were nice enough to let me go by. It's an advantage compared to those who were stuck behind other competitors. It's a big surprise to have clocked the best time because we don't really have the kind of car made for such a course. But we managed not to make any mistakes." Hiroshi Masuoka (Mitsubish Evo2): "It's the kind of special where you have to enjoy yourself, have fun, be spectacular for the crowd. But still and most of all be careful and not damage the car." Here is an interesting story - Race Dakar without any motorcycle experience? 41-year-old Thierry Hupin took off on the Telefonica Dakar for the very first time on a KTM 650CC bike with a license he only got two weeks ago and no experience on two wheels. "I lost too much time. I thought it would be easier." During the prologue in Auvergne when he really discovered the machine that he is supposed to take all the way to Dakar. The 1.5km bumpy track, under snow was to be his baptism of fire. "I even choked in the middle of the special. It was tougher than I thought. But the important thing was not to fall after the first turn so I took it easily. I have to learn." Despite all this, 'super newcomer' was far from ridiculous. Of course, it took Hupin 2min 40s to complete the prologue but with his 181st position, he finishes ahead of 14 other riders, including two who had already finished the rally in good position. If this stage went without worries, the biker remains extremely cautious and heads for the upcoming stages with as much modesty as possible. *I only rode 1.5kms. I still have 11 000 to go and I don't know if I'll make it. All I know is that I'll give everything to go as far as possible." What a nut! Hard to believe, but I'm not making this up. After two stages, Thierry is in 192nd. After the special, all the motorcycle competitors once again had the luxury of loading their bikes into trucks for the long 563km liaison to Castellon 60km north of Valencia in the heart of the Costa Blanca area in Spain where tomorrow they will race the last European special before heading off to the deserts of Africa, where the event starts in earnest. Standings mean little so early in the Rally, but nonetheless, Team Red Bull is behind all 9 riders for KTM Teams France, Spain, and International: 20th Larry Roeseler +3*16 36th Scott Harden +4*24 44th Paul Krause (KTM 950) +5*06 Pictures of the race on line are hard to find. To get an idea of what the conditions were like, you can find some at these links (looked cold to me!): [url]http://www.dakar.com/2004/us/index.html[/url] under photos, and [url]http://www.eurosport.com/home/pages/V3/L0/F10/sport_Lng0_Fml10.shtml[/url] cool pictures of the Yamaha two wheeled drive bike at: [url]http://www.yamaha-racing.com/[/url] And finally, I thought this from PG Lundmark's web page, was too good to summarize: Second stage Today I met the Frenchman who cost PålAnders five minutes during last year's Dakar, next to last stage in the Sinai desert. The absolutely last sand dune with a steep rear side, about ten metres high. Pål had just passed him and he didn't seem to like being passed by a Norwegian. His answer was to pass again on the crest of the dune, at about 50kph. Right speed is about 4kph. He reached an altitude of some 12-13 metres above the point where he landed among fist-sized rocks. Both heels were crushed, both ankles broken and a vertebra crushed. He stopped PålAnders from activating his emergency transmitter that would have guaranteed him a helicopter within 20 minutes. He thought he would be OK to continue if he just rested a while. Pushing the button will cost around 1000 Euros, which may also have played a part. Now he told me he had spent five months in hospital before he was allowed to support his own body weight. This year he is in charge of information for the two-wheeled participants. He wants to be back in 2005. Like me, he is smitten by the bug. Today's special wasn't the same as it has been, no rocky trails in the mountains, just clay and dirt. Another slippery day, in other words. I spent most of the time on my back wheel, just to show my appreciation for the brave spectators waiting in the nasty weather all morning. My bike seems to be jetted with jets the size of a pipeline or of the type found in methanol-speedway racers. I have to check this before the proper racing starts in Africa or I'll risk running out of petrol, something I had enough of in 2001, when it happened three times. That costs time. Finding a Bedouin to sell you petrol out there is as likely as my mother having a schnapps for Christmas. Lukas Lundin bought the most expensive petrol in Africa in 2000. After taking a wrong turn he had to find petrol. In the third village where he stopped, a medicine man sold him 20 litres of low-grade petrol for 100 US dollars. That's capitalism for you, supply and demand. French journalists are chasing me. This morning some journalists came over, shot lots of photos and told me their readers liked my spectacular riding style. I don't understand and I feel insulted. I am always riding as nicely as the adrenaline allows. They also asked about the airbrush on the right-hand front tank. I told them it was my sauna at home in Fjällbonäs, pointing out the bath tub, the cut opening in the ice on the lake and tried to describe what an evening in a sauna is like, with home-burned schnapps and the whole lot. The legend "If you ain't Norrbottner, you ain't ****!" caught his attention, with a map of Scandinavia with the Polar Circle marked in. Apparently there is an abyss between a lake in Norrbotten and a French motor journalist in Narbonne, although we both belong to the European community. Maybe our community should think about sending missionaries, like the Swedish church does. -------------- Special thanks to Mikael Lain, PG's webmaster. The translation is done by a fellow named Jan Leek. Please visit it, and check out cool pictures of PG's bike,at: [url]www.pgdakar.com[/url] Best, Tom Warr [/QUOTE]
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General Moto | Off-Topic Posts
Dakar has started...Yam 450 2 wheel in first!!
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