Pale Riders on the Long Way Down

As many of you know, I’m passionate about everything on two wheels (bicycling & motorcycling).  As I can’t get my Honda VFR 800i Interceptor out much this winter, I have to watch from the sidelines.  This post covers the Long Way Down expedition/trek (wikipedia post & BBC coverage) & the upcoming start of the Dakar Rally.

 Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman just finished their Long Way Down trip from John O’ Groats, Scotland to Capetown, South Africa.   This follows their incredible adventure in the Long Way Round when they rode from the UK to NYC across Asia and North America.

 Photos at the start of their trip:

http://www.xrv.org.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=17738

Interestingly, “Scottishbiker” who posted these photos has an adaptation of the powerful Book of Revelations verse – ““Behold the pale horse and the man who sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him” as his tag.

I thought those of you not familiar with these would like them.  Also, Boorman has become obsessed with the Dakar Rally (formerly the Paris to Dakar) race and has actually raced in the dangerous event (see Race to Dakar) which the Vatican newspaper calls “the bloody race of irresponsibility.”  There have apparently been 49 deaths in the event in 29 years.

The race starts in just a few days on January 5, 2007 in Lisbon, Portugal and ends in January 20th.  It is possible to track the race in real time.  I’m considering a membership for the month myself.

 

Two Americans, Robby Gordon and Ronn Bailey have recently received a great deal of attention (ex. New York Times article), primarily based on Gordon’s surprising strong finish in 2007 and Bailey’s entering the race primarily with his dollars.

A Primer on the Dakar Rally

The Dakar: guideline and lexicon

The Dakar is an endurance and navigation between Lisbon and Dakar for the cars, trucks, bikes and quads, including 15 stages (video of the route & pdf map)

dakar-2008-route-lisbon-to-dakar-senegal.pdf

The 15 stages:

DATE	START	FINISH	CONNECTION	SPECIAL	CONNECTION	TOTAL
05/01/08	Lisboa	Portimão	104 km	120 km	262 km	486 km
06/01/08	Portimão	Málaga	15 km	60 km	460 km	535 km
07/01/08	Nador	Er Rachidia	182 km	372 km	163 km	717 km
08/01/08	Er Rachidia	Ouarzazate	29 km	356 km	199 km	584 km
09/01/08	Ouarzazate	Guelmim	188 km	498 km	148 km	834 km
10/01/08	Guelmim	Smara	66 km	454 km	105 km	625 km
11/01/08	Smara	Atâr	198 km	619 km	12 km	829 km
12/01/08	Atâr	Nouakchott	44 km	450 km	37 km	531 km
13/01/08	Rest Day
14/01/08	Nouakchott	Nouhadibou	37 km	525 km	86 km	648 km
15/01/08	Nouhadibou	Atâr	111 km	552 km	22 km	685 km
16/01/08	Atâr	Tidjikja	35 km	524 km	133 km	692 km
17/01/08	Tidjikja	Kiffa	131 km	398 km	2 km	531 km
18/01/08	Kiffa	Kiffa	25 km	484 km	6 km	515 km
19/01/08	Kiffa	Saint-Louis	326 km	301 km	130 km	757 km
20/01/08	Saint-Louis	Dakar	239 km	23 km	42 km	304 km
TOTAL			1 730 km	5 736 km	1 807 km	9 273 km

Stage = a course to cover between two cities. It includes a special as well as one or two liaison sections, according to the days.

Special = It is also called a timed section. It’s the portion of a stage, covered on or off course, on which the competitors are timed between two time checks. The time registered on this section will be used to establish the standings.

Liaison = It’s the section, normally on tarmac, used to reach the start of a special and the then the finish bivouac of a stage. It is not timed but the competitors have to cover it in a maximum time.

Bivouac = The meeting point for the competitors of the race or in assistance as well as the members of the organisation and the press. It is always situated at an airport.

Navigation = Unlike for WRC races where the itineraries are marked, the discipline of rally-raid forces the competitors to orientate themselves and find the different CPs and CHs. They are given a road-book at the bivouac at the finish of the previous stage.

Road-book = It’s the document containing the course directions, the cape to follow, the dangers and the distances. The competitors can use their road-book thanks to their trip master.

GPS = Reduced to its simple function as a compass, it can be “unblocked” (with penalties), in other words additional guidance information will appear, if a competitor gets lost. It is also used as an “informer” to control the speed of competitors after every stage.

Iritrack = System transmitting information by satellite, mandatory for all vehicles. It allows a competitor to communicate with the PC (race headquarters) in case of danger and the organisation to know the precise position of a competitor in real time.

Check point (CP) = they are mandatory passages located on the course of the special. The competitors have their check point book posted at each control.

Time checks (CH) = they are located at the start and finish of each liaison and special.

Standings

Scratch = It’s the standing based on the time established by each competitor during a special.

Stage = It’s the standing established after the sum of possible penalties decided by the race officials according to the rule book.

Overall = It is established after adding the times of each stage.

Starts = every day, the bikes followed by the cars and finally the trucks take off according to the order of the previous day’s scratch standing. This common rule however has some exceptions:

• The first Portuguese stage = the bikes take off in the reverse order of their race numbers
• The last stage = the bikes take off in the reverse order of the overall standing
• The trucks = they are mixed with the cars as of the first Mauritanian stage.