rallye du maroc - scrutineering

leasurely 0700 start today in time for scrutineering which started at 1130 sharp. had to find out where we were meant to be and triple checking we had all the correct paperwork, from medical info to passports, licences, safety equipment etc etc. before coming out i had to have an eye test, a medical, echo cardiogram and a stress ecg, just so that i could get an international fim licence to race abroad, i then needed a blood test so i could provide my blood group to the race admin and mark my crash helmet, but only managed this on thursday night so the results won't arrive until monday so have to guess in meantime!

once through that we had 1 hour to connect up all the electronic kit to the bike - i will explain the kit requirements a little later - and fit all the stickers to the bike. once, fitted, the admin staff had to test all the equipment, check the bike was worthy and correct for its class, mark the key parts so that the bike could not be modified without them knowing and, and and.....this went on for some time, but it was all outside in the bright sunshine, so very pleasant. considering how poor my french is, the admin crew were very friendly and patient, while i bounced around from one admin person to another handing money here there and everywhere, signing forms, smiling and saying bonjour, merci, ca va? seemed to keep everyone onside....

marc coma's bike

cyril despres's bike

some funky looking bmw 450s

once cleared for take off, we had to collect our road books, mark them up and fit to the bike; two hours later i think we finished! shouldn't take this long, but wanted to get it right for day 1. once on, we then had to race to a training session on the sentinal (warning system that gives a very loud audio signal that car or truck is very close and wants to pass), the gps and way points system, iritrack (allows each competitor to be monitored by race officials and the public know where we are- you can log on to the npo website to watch our progress, live).

then finally it was supper, together with all the race officials, admin staff and competitors, in the outside dining area of the reda hotel - must be about 500-600 people - and a briefing on tomorrows race! adrenaline starting to pump now!!

the team; myself plus

jago (lucy, he isn't going v fast, it's just i'm a poor photographer!)

joe from the usa (looking a little concerned, think it might be to do with his ico!)

paul, oops! don't have a photo yet : )

johan "ice and slice" from belgium

supported by martin, colin and john.

martin leading the way : )

colin in his bush hat telling jago to stop breaking things

oops! no photo of john yet : )

just to give you and idea on the support required for this kind of event; all the bikes had to be prepared for the rally, so in addition to the obvious, suspension set up, new tyres, new sprockets, then all the electronics to handle the road book, ico (measures speed and distances as part of the navigational equipment), sentinal, gps, iritrack. then all the bikes, tools and spares have to be driven down from heathfield in east sussex, to zagora, about 3000 miles away. then each day they make sure all the bikes are set to go, before heading off to the assistance areas, which could be 200km away, where we then rely on them, should we have bits of our bike hanging off, holes in tanks etc and to get back to the bivoac to service our bikes and once again prepare them for the following day. without them, we would have a very short rally and or a shagged bike!

marc coma signed my newly acquired baseball cap! (never asked for an autograph before)