support

it has been an incredible journey so far and what i realise now is how many people have supported me over the last 3.5 years.

patsy and zippy and the desert rose racing crew have been immense, straight talking, fast walking, you don't get better! their knowledge of bikes, dirt, rallies, racing is immense and to think i was embarking this challenge on my own initially....arguably more crazy than the race itself!! there is certainly no way i would be here today, preparing for the 2012 dakar without them!!!

they have coached me in all aspects of enduro, from stripping and riding.....a dirt bike, (as well as putting a few bits back together, but only in emergency!!) to navigating and tracking across the deserts of morocco, in the day and the night.

since my first hare and hound event in long compton in 2009, i have competed in 21 events, from 3 hours to 6 days and in addition. it has been a constant and steep learning curve, but what i love the most is that there is still so much more to learn..... a never ending quest for perfection???

i've had 1 shoulder operation, 2 knee operations, steroid injections and masses of physio in that time, and i have been held together by a number of people in the pure sports clinic, in kensington, london.

sam at pure sports physio has looked after me for over 2 years now, but i also received a great deal of care from laura, who enabled me to race in the beacons and receive my first trophy in the 24hr d2d this year. when i first met sam after shoulder surgery, he said it would take 4 months to get my shoulder moving again, but he said we will get there.....and we did.

sam also introduced to me to leah, who became my performance coach, and we have been working together since march 2010. training has been mixed with rehab as a result of the different ops, but all the time it has been focused on this one event. however, having achieved this level of fitness, i want to maintain it and look forward to competing in new events next year, including the romaniacs and the anatolia rally, we'll see!

then there is the support of fellow riders, jago and his wife lucy. we've travelled a hell of a lot together; from flying out to spain, morocco, tunisia to driving to ireland on a saturday for a 6 hour enduro on the sunday, racing for the day and then driving through the night to return home to london in time for work on the monday.

ben who's pretending to be bored in his kazakhstan gulag, has brought plenty of humour, either drinking himself to oblivion or taking himself out on a tree!!

financial support from chris barwick - perhaps his earth moving company could flatten a few dunes for us to ; )  and also from stephen malone.

rory 'ginger piston' elliott, who's been a star organising and running the convoy and the charity fundraising event with ross noble.

jenny and my neighbour jane and her daughter antonia who so wonderfully look after chobe when i am away with work, either just during the day or overseas and ronnie who has taken over puppy duties looking after sambona (sammie).

looks like everyone who came to the charity night raised around £8,000 after all the costs which is a fantastic achievement considering the party was conceived about 6 weeks ago!

support from moving brands when i conceived the dakar plan through to recent financial encouragement to help with the final push, as well as tweeting their 'ecosystem' about the party and charities we're supporting.

support from hci, providing the platform for me to train, compete and prepare for this endeavour.

my family, my friends and every supportive comment, email, text and tweet have all helped me get to this point.

i will have to create a definitive list to include everyone.

thank you for being there

relief

i thought i was busy earlier this year with all the training, racing and goings on at work, but nothing prepared me for chobe's pups!

born on the evening of 26th july, 9 tiny, blind and deaf rhodesian ridgebacks came into being in their cardboard whelping box in the kitchen of our cotswold cottage. i received a call from fiona who was responsible for the bulk of the puppy rearing for the following 3 months, to tell me chobe had delivered 2 pups. i was in the gym at the time, but was soon in the car heading out of town for what was to be an intense week, with little or no sleep. training was blinking hard - after 3 days of being days house-bound i sneaked off for a 2 hour cycle, but hit the wall after about an hour and spent the following 60 minutes in a weird state where i felt like i was dreaming, could not pedal and would start to wobble before almost falling off the bike!! anyway, photos and more on this story can be found on chobe's blog - she's pretty handy on the ipad ; )

anyway, the next 3 months was crazy. finishing work on a friday, i would train before heading down to the cottage, take fiona to the station, then give chobe and pups their final meal, clear up poos, wees and then eat something myself before going to bed at about 1130pm. pups would wake at around 7am, so i would be up at about 630am to prepare the food before they went mad. however, the sound of footsteps would alert them, so i was greeted with cacophony of barks, wails and howls!!! but nothing quite matched the sound when i turned the food processor on, oh my goodness!! the noise was deafening, i really needed ear defenders. never being brilliant first thing in the morning, this was a nightmare!!!

the pups fed on chobes's milk for 8 weeks, but the weaning process started after 2. however, during this time chobe ate 6 meals a day, a mix of dried food and raw mince. once the pups started on dried food, they too ate 6 times a day!! they were going through a bag of dried food a week!!

i would still sneak off for an hour's cycle in the afternoon and this became easier after i had built a large pen for the pups in mary's garden. this also allowed me the space to clean the kitchen - i had to dismantle the 2 cages and metal fencing, before scooping up all the shredded newspaper, poos and wees, then i would start the floor washing and disinfecting. so the routine continued until sunday evening, which would be the reverse of friday; pick fiona up from the station and then drive back to london. 

as much as i was tired, i was always very sad to leave the pups and chobe; we'd never been apart for such a long period of time. i was also sad to miss watching the pups grow each day - they were growing up so quickly.

pups needed worming, injections, weighing, registering with the kennel club, micro-chipping and of course advertising to sell them! i ended up with pups on 9 different websites, the hare and hounds and others. i was very worried by week 10 as i had only sold 2 or 3 and thought i was going to be stuck with 'old pups' but suddenly i was inundated with enquiries before i was suddenly stuck with the dilemma about which pup to keep.

i had originally wanted to keep a boy so i picked out deka, the breeders thought pemba was a stunner, but i loved sambona from day 1..... i had to ask mum to help with the decision as i could not decide. she  said to go with my gut, so all logic and advice aside, i took sambona under my wing.

sambona on the front seat

mum and daughter in the courtyard

but during this 3 month period, i still continued my daily training, weekly physio,  competed in 3 x 2 day rallies, the 24hr dawn to dusk, a day on the dunkirk beaches, as well as the all important work - we're moving offices - which enables me to do all of this!! i think this is the first weekend since july that i had no obligations, other than to spend some special time with my dogs. i really needed this pause.

dakarteamgb

well hopefully you've seen the press release by now for dakarteamgb?


we've created dakar team gb to represent the uk riders entering the dakar this year, in order to raise the profile of the third most publicised sporting event outside the olympics and football world cup, the dakar! outside the uk, the rally is broadcast to 2 billion people, not forgetting to mention the 5 million who physically come out to support it.


in addition, due to the extreme nature of this event and its huge appeal, we are using it to generate awareness and funding for a number of charities that i have mentioned before; nelson mandela children's fund, royal marsden cancer research, shelterbox and absolute return for kids.


not trying to ram it home, but every penny helps ......  : ))

so next friday, 18th december, we have organised a convoy of rally vehicles and any riders who want to join in, to ride out from twickers to canada square via all the main, busy sites through london. it is going to be a lot of fun and we now have a lot of press and tv interest which is exciting. then on 1st december, we're having a party, a fund raising event at the tabernacle near westbourne grove. ross noble is going to do some light entertainment, there'll be a short dakar presentation and an auction, plus music and booze, so it should be fun.


but i have to say that none of this would have been possible if rory the 'ginger piston' hadn't taken this with both hands, legs, feet and ears!!! rory must have shares in one of the mobile phone companies as he's been working hard contacting sponsors, venues, press, organisers, djs, officials etc etc - quote funny when you know this idea was born from a drunken night in a dodgy fulham club ; ) ....hic!!


arrived back from a week training morocco on saturday night - it was the first break since may and i spent it racing across the desert, awesome! on the last day we rode from merzouga to ouarzazate, 525km, of which 450km was off-road, taking just over 10 hours: an average dakar day!!


it was a brilliant week of mixed training; getting used to the new 450 with its' very smooth engine, heavier weight due to the 30 litre fuel capacity and 3 litre water tank; the new ohlins suspension set up; bar risers and new nav equipment. the bike was awesome. it needs some work on the suspension set up, but apart from that and a little smartening up, it was better than i had hoped for.

in short the week comprised of


day 1 - run engine in; ride from errachidia to merzouga, plus 1 lap around erg chebbi
day 2 - 260km road book to zagora
day 3 - 260km gps back to merzouga in the morning, mechanical work in avo, evening in the dunes
day 4 - early morning dunes, 200km roadbook in the afternoon, dunes at night
day 5 - 0600-1700hrs from merzouga to ouarzazate 525km



well with only 51 days to go until the start of the dakar, i'm starting to get excited! i have some idea of what is in store from the 2 desert rallies and stories from numerous dakar riders, so i'm sure the pre-race nerves will start to kick in closer to the time.


i've been preparing for this since early 2008 and bar a few items of kit and bit more training, i feel quite prepared. however, there is an endless amount of training i could have done and could be doing if i had the time; more bike mechanics and electrics, more riding, more time in the desert, but then i need to work and earn the money to pay for such pleasures.


i fly out to buenos aires on dec 24th, so have a few days to relax and soak up the atmosphere before the pre-race admin checks or scrutineering begin on dec 29th and the sunday jan 1st 2012, the race kicks off.


for me dakar is about a journey rather than a destination and everyone i have met and the experiences i have had and will have are what this dream has been about.