rallye du maroc - race day 5 "sur les terres des ait attas"

the daily stats
307km
49km liaison to the start of the special, given 1 hour
249km special stage
9km back to the hotel, (technically not a liaison so no time pressure)
start time 0714hrs from hotel reda
return time 1300hrs to hotel reda

we well and truly have a routine now and almost without thinking we wake up, dress, eat, jump on the bike and race. but this morning i had a little drama, when i noticed that my radiator was still leaking while warming up the engine, which was a bugger as martin and colin had checked it all over the previous afternoon. these things happen. since this was a 'sans assistance' day, if i need the lads to work on the bike it had to take place in the bivoac. so i went through the process of starting the liaison, but performed a u-turn and headed back to the bivoac, about 2km in the opposite direction. martin and colin were waiting and quickly established a hole in the radiator hose, so martin very quickly removed the seat, tank and hose while colin did the same with the spare bike in order to retrieve the spare hose. martin refitted the new hose, added new rad fluid, tank and seat back on and i was off to the special, all within 10 mins, now that's support!! i had to get a move on though, as i still had a 50km liaison before my 0820hrs start.

this turned out to be another very fast day, more tracks than chotts (flat, dry lake beds) , more technical and less forgiving terrain and a lot of wash-outs, gnarly river beds and very dusty! but the final 5km run in to the finish was a crazy dash over a wide open plain, the large inflatable redbull arch and oilybia flags could be seen 2kms out, throttle pinned all the way to the line.

chilling out at the support truck

elisabeth jacinto next to her winning truck

desert rose racing team, rally du maroc!

looks like jago and i finished in first place again, not bad for a week's work and it all done by lunch time! i think it was a about 4.5hrs, but it was full on, with quite a lot of overtaking and fuelling along the way. but in the back of my mind was tomorrow's race, the desert gp, 4 laps of a a 40km loop in the dunes, this was going to be tough!

so fast that the spectators wanted photos with us!

can't believe we have completed stage 5 already. we've been hard at it now for 8 days, 1 day traveling, 1 day prep, 1 day admin and 5 days racing and it has gone in a flash! but it ain't over yet, and the journey home is going to be a long one.

it's been an awesome week so far and whatever happens tomorrow it will have been an unforgettable adventure.

log onto npo website for latest info and updates
http://www.npolive.com/maroc2010/en/etape.php?stage=1&rub=include.php

live tracking of our progress
http://vulcain.iritrack.net/tdcom/eviewer/shamrock2010/ 

and if you live in france, jago and i made it onto french tv again today as a round up of this event is broadcast in france daily!!