dakar - day 8 - 31st december 2011 - podium day

another day another....podium?! yep, today was podium day, a day to celebrate the dakar with the crowds, great pr opportunity and create a motorsport  media frenzy. i don't know how many people turned up to watch the competitors ride from parc ferme to the podium and back along the atlantic coast road, but there was barely a gap in the crowd on either side of the road for the 2km route; i've heard numbers in the hundreds of thousands....bonkers....they're bonkers, but it was bloody brilliant!!

the beautiful argentine dawn was slightly tempered by the previous day's robbery, but we were starting the dakar the following day and that's what mattered - in fact jago still had to go through scrutineering due to the cash issue and dealing with the robbery the previous day. as a result a relatively calm morning turned into a last minute podium panic as jago was waiting for me at parc ferme having just completed scrutineering and we still had to drive back across town to the podium bearing in mind everyone and their dog was doing the same thing and the coastal road was blocked to traffic. somehow time had run away with myself patsy and the crew, so we left the villa with very little time to spare. so jumping out of the support truck jago and i flew off in alex's car, first navigating ourselves past the crowds, then dealing with an irate security guard who then got really upset when jago and i looked like we were going to turn round and go back, but instead drove round him and shot off up the hill, along the barricaded competitor route! within 30 seconds a motorbike 2 up with a rider and guard shot past and waved us angrily to stop, but unfortunately for them another guard thought it was best to open the barricade, so we shot through and turned up into the maze of streets and left the guard perplexed having failed to stop and there the fun started.

the city was rammed

the grid pattern one way streets have no traffic lights, it's first come first serve, so at every block there was a cross roads alternating between traffic coming from the right or from the left. and with the steep cambers it was a crazy drive with jago racing away before slamming on the brakes with me shouting clear left or clear right and navigating us towards the podium. it was lunch-time, so quite hot and very busy. racing into familiar roads we struggled to find anywhere to park and in any normal city we would not have got away with parking on a pedestrian crossing, but it was the only space available and we still had a 400m run with all our race gear for the group bike photo. in shorts, flip flops and sunglasses, clutching our new boots, trousers, jacket and lid, we found our way to the photo, with enough time to change where we stood and join the 230 bike and quad riders for the team photo on the podium. sitting down and drawing breath, it was a fantastic moment. a small moment to reflect and take it all in, seeing all the riders together for the only time, admiring the crowds and the atlantic beyond. centrally placed we waved and cheered as instructed before be shepherded off to the theatre for the dakar briefing, where the entire army of competitors, support teams and aso staff would gather for the intro to the dakar.

on the podium

behind me on the podium - i did not realise it at the time
but the guy in the bottom left had-side of the
photo was 'captain dakar', he'll feature later on : )

each mini event was new and exciting and the magnitude of what i was embarking on became very clear! there must have been at least 2000 people gathered to hear etienne lavigne the director of the dakar talk about dakar 2012. but sitting down in the relative cool of the theatre, the lights went down and so did my eyelids! i'm hopeless, as soon as someone starts talking at me my mind disengages and i switch off, litterally.....basically i nodded off! head dropping before the mercury switch whipped my head back to attention for 30 seconds and so it continued until the next stage of today's events, the ride from parc ferme to the podium.

arriving back at parc ferme

so having started at parc ferme, raced across town to dump the car in the middle of the city, run to the podium, crossed the square for the briefing, we were now transported in coaches along the coast back to parc ferme. astonished by the crowds that had lined the route, we donned our gear, climbed aboard our bikes and headed back up the route one by one. as rider #187 jago had already gone, so i was able to focus and take in the cheering crowds, waving constantly all the way. very soon riders were pulling some awesome wheelies much to the joy of the spectators who screamed with approval! i was sorely tempted to do the same, but feared patsy's wrath if i planted my bike in the crowd, never mind the carnage ; ))










lid off and michelin cap on, i was up on the podium, quick smile, then off again, to wave at the crowds all the way back. yesterday's worries were blown away by the cheering supporters. you could literally feel the energy willing you to lima and this phenomenon would continue throughout the dakar......

back in shorts and t-shirts jago and i grabbed a burger and a shandy in the public event area while we waited for patsy to collect us.

the calm before the storm

back at the villa we had time to shower and carry out final kit checks and back the truck before going to the local taverna for the last supper. while the rest of the world were either celebrating entry into 2012 or were preparing to, we had a rather quiet supper, final carbo and protein load, before heading back and getting our heads down. tomorrow was d-day.

dakar - day 7 - 30th december 2011 - scrutineering

i competed a lot at school and university, particularly rowing and at quite a high level - at least the guys i rowed with the coaches involved were very experienced! - and so i was used to this pre-race state. i wasn't nervous, i really did just want to get going, but i was also beginning to enjoy the fact that i was now, finally, living the dream as a good friend used to say (thank you mr anthony dale!!). i can't remember where i mentioned this before, but i spent a couple of ours with a sports psychologist discussing the dakar. my performance coach, leah, had put me onto her as i wanted to know how olympic athletes remained focused for so many years to comete in a race that may only last 9.86 seconds. yes there are endurance events, but nothing that lasts 15 days (plus 3 days admin), in fact the olympics would be almost over in the time frame we were competing.

when i decided to enter dakar i really only thought about getting to the start and seeing how far i could go, it was only patsy and zippy who really changed my approach; they expected to see a finish. i don't want to harp on about 'the journey' (sound like some monk), but that remained very important to me, however, i now believed i could finish, with some luck and a tail wind. however, when i met sarah cecil, the sports psych, we discussed what had now become my fear of not finishing. to my mind there had been many things in my life that i feel i did not finish, complete, see through.....although it depended how you looked at the situation, but ultimately i had held onto a lot of negatives and the dakar had now become a vehicle to lay these demons to rest. as a result the pressure was now building to finish.

it scared me though as i really felt that the only thing that would stop me finishing was the bike bursting into a ball of flames or....... there were so many things that i wanted to do after the dakar; ski, climb, bike cruises around europe, the states, africa, south america....but i felt i would only be able to do these if i finished. sarah encouraged me to give myself permission to enjoy the dakar whether or not i finished  and celebrate the taking part, but in reality i knew i would not enjoy the race, but only the success of finishing.

we were getting to bed at about 1200am with so much still to do - it never ends, you can just have to draw a line and say that's enough! then waking up as dawn broke, both the warm air, light as well as the adrenaline all contributed. the adrenaline was like a mild coffee, nothing hectic, just enough to stop you dozing. i was definitely ready to start.

scrutineering day; administrative and mechanical bike checks, which if anything is missing and cannot be rectified by close of play of the last day of checks, meant the end of dakar before it even really started! so we were up at 6am, fed and packed ready to leave at about 830am. they say the dakar is a 15 day race with a rest day in the middle, but week getting to the start line should be included in the day count!

it was only admin and bike checks, so knowing it was going to take the best part of the day i wore shorts, trainers (but carried flip flops too), body armour, jacket, helmet, passport, mobile and money, small sack with paperwork and pens, and as back up i put my neck brace in the support truck. i was going to take my tool bag in case i had to do any emergency work on the bike, but it was felt overkill, so i went with the majority. now jago's an awesome guy, he's so bloody relaxed about everything, but sometimes his admin is a little, shall we say, last minute : )) so now rushing out of the door, we jump on our bikes, dodge the terrifying alsatian guard dogs that came tearing across the road from one of our neighbouring villas and out of the golfing complex. using this time to think about what i am carrying, i have that nagging feeling that i've left something behind. days gone by i would have pushed on, but this time i waved jago down, unpacked my bag and realised i'd left the bloody v5 docs on the kitchen table! i'd taken them out to distribute but for some reason not re-packed mine. so i spun round and flew back; passing the support team i headed back into the complex. dodging the blasted dogs, i headed back to the villa and retrieved the docs before turn-tailing and riding fast back to town; all the spare time i had now had been eaten up.....bloody idiot!

bike parked up ready for scrutineering : )

jago ready to tackle the admin tent

what should have been a straight forward journey now suddenly became a little stressful; the route in looked totally different in the daylight, not to mention the one way system meant you could not travel the same way you came through the night we arrived; the signage to the entrance was unclear and meant a few u-turns and asking numerous officials for guidance. but i eventually made it and realised that a lot of the times that were specified to us were designed to ensure everyone got through the checks in 3 days and not 10, so it was not too serious. after that the morning went swimmingly as we moved from desk to desk in an air-conditioned tent - more like an aircraft hangar - at least until jago got off the phone to alex our landlord. nonchalantly jago said to patsy, john and myelf that there was some bad news, we'd been burgled! "what do you mean, burgled?", "what's been taken?", "when?", "how?", "why????". christ! our villa was in a gated golfing complex, with police guarding the entrance. our villa was at the end of a road and not in an  obvious spot. we'd only been away for a couple of hours.

jago needed to get some cash for aso in order to start the dakar, so agreed to head back while we finished scrutineering and find out the extent of the damage. at this stage the assumption was that all our electronic gear had gone; laptops, ipads, ipods, nano's and video cameras. we were wrong.

having heard how bad scrutineering can be i had prepared for the worst, but i have to say it was a really enjoyable experience. the venue was incredibly well organised, the environment was cool and calm, the administrators were helpful and friendly, the whole thing was simply brilliant. but such is the way of things, that when things go too well, you have to prepare for the curved ball whinging it's way towards you - never become complacent!

decided not to go marathon class as that meant
removing the tanks

patsy knew everyone, or should i say
everyone knew patsy - bloody brilliant!

i had to wear the orange cone during scrutineering
and yes that's my helmet, i mean lid she's holding!

you can see coma and despres bikes, right at the very very end!!!!

podium number 1

everything had been taken and i mean everything; trousers, boots, socks, food - all the cereal and protein bars, electrolytes - tool bag, as well as all the electronic kit. BOLLOCKS!! i mean seriously, this is the dakar, not some little 4 hour event in the wales. ok, so as i've just said, this is dakar, it bites you when you least expect it and none of us expected this! well, not really. ironically mariano had warned me of exactly this scenario when i told we were staying in a vill, just  days before. you hear about these things but you never think it will happen to you - why would you?

"right, we need to find some kit then!!!"

i'd start in my jeans, if they were still there, and i'd borrow some spare boots from one of the rider, bound to be able to pull some kit together. main thing was that i was through scrutineering! i was going to start the rally that i had planned for 3 years 8 months before, had dreamt about years ago, i was now a competitor in the dakar, how amazing is that?! so overwhelmed that all had gone without a glitch, i was up on the podium (the first of 3 podiums i would encounter ; ) and off again almost without stopping and waving to the crowd - not very good at that sort of thing....at least i wasn't at the start of the dakar, hahaha! it was only patsy who was pointing towards the crowd that i realised - not as cool as jago who wheelied off the podium ; ) although not until the following day as  a result of this little hurdle  we had to jump.

searching mobile phones for possible bike shops, we found 1, the only one open on friday before the new year's eve and pre-dakar celebrations started. it happened to be owned by a friend of our landlord's, hmmmm! patsy, john and i arrived before jago and alex arrived to assist with the translation - alex had leant his car to us as extra transport. incredibly we managed to find boots, knee braces, pants and gloves, the basics, but not quite the spec we had planned and bought.

the brand new kit that was stolen included:
klim pants, gloves, goretex jacket
desert goggles
sidi crossfire boots
asterix knee braces and sleeves
15 pairs of sports socks
60 energy bars
15 boil in the bag lunches
15 porridge breakfasts
7 shirts - adidas and force-field
4 pairs of skins shorts
hip tool bag containing all my tools; multi-tools etc
laptop, ipad, ipod, nano (inc moulded ear-plugs), cash etc
my north face kit bag that i've had for years and has been on so many expeditions
sleeping bag
plus plus plus

rough list of stolen kit

and more

this was just my kit, but jago had the same, and the support team lost a load of their kit, but fortunately the rest was in the safety of the truck.

my boots were huge in order to fit the knee braces which were like full-on calipers with no ventilation, this was going to be interesting, but we were at least going to start the dakar.

it was weird that having suffered this hiccup, the thing that got me down the most was the fact that we could not spend the afternoon enjoying the atmosphere of mar del plata, whether it was a steak burger or a dip in the sea with the thousands of revelers who had come out in support and to join in the fun. instead we were racing around town buying kit before the shops closed. i was also pissed that the nano i had loaded with my favourite tracks and ear plugs had gone, no tunes for the endless liaisons : (

still, we managed to go out for dinner, eat some more steak and drink a beer. life could be a lot worse!

dakar - days 5 & 6 - 28-29th december 2011

so having collected the bikes from the port, they had then been transported to the poolside party, after which we then rode them over to andres home about 30 mins away. as an industrial designer he had beautifully converted a run down old villa into a really cool home, something you would expect to find in shoreditch, london. and for a lover of bikes, the entrance was a garage, with a wooden folding door and a wondefully tiled floor where we parked our bikes against his.

menage a trois

knowing the bikes were pretty safe here, we got a taxi back to the hotel. a long day!

so the plan for wednesday was to get the bikes down to our rented villa just outside mar del plata, where the dakar rally was going to be starting from. on the map it did not look too far away, but in reality it is over 500km along a dual carriageway rather than a motorway. long story short, we returned to andres house in the morning, loaded up the bikes into a white transit (they even have them out there!) and the driver, mariano and jago headed off at lunch time, while i hung around andres house as they packed for what could be a long trip. pick-up packed we headed off late afternoon, 3-4 hours after jago.

rush hour traffic in any citry is bad, so it took an hour to cross the city (again!) before hitting the main route south to the argentine riviera! finally getting a chance to see the real country, having been in the city for the past 4 days; it was such a relief, both to be on the road with the bikes, but also to be out of the city.

i was born in london and have lived there for the past 14 years, but i spent most of my time growing up in the country and that is where i prefer to be. i'm a solitary person, good at working on my own in my own space, but enjoy sharing my experiences with those close to me. don't get me wrong, i like to party and love company, but not all of the time : )) i love buenos aires and look forward to returning, but i was really pleased to be heading to the coast and having a chance to see, feel, smell and taste the real argentina; even wafts of skunk odour - is that english???

the route was pretty much straight - and this would be a theme on most of the long liaison sections - and very flat; arable farming punctuated with vast studs. if there had been vineyards, it might well have been the western cape! unfortunately the sun set a couple of hours after departing the city, but a sense of calm permeated the pick-up, mixed with the excitement of the rally as the road cleared and the darkness enveloped us.

















andres drove the 500km or so to mar del plata with his wife and child in the back, he was so excited! i sat in the front taking in all the new sites and tried to keep drinking an eating whenever we stopped as it was so easy to lose your routine. having signed a motorbike helmet and a few t-shirts at the party the night before i was not too surprised when the garage shop owners asked for mine.....funny really.

jago, me, mariano, andres

we finally reconvened in the secure parking area next to the naval base and i was feeling pumped. this was the dakar and the whole place was packed with cars, trucks and bikes and now, spectators were growing in numbers; you couldn't help feel you were part of something special and this was only the beginning.

the bikes almost at the start : )

adres and family

way cool looking buggies!

the landlord of our villa, alex, met us at the naval base to escort us on what was a 40km ride, but not before we had a proper mc'ds - i was starving, i'd only eaten 5 times that day!

parking up outside the mc'ds caused a little stir, 2 fucking cool bikes parked up, two fit looking lads in shorts and desert rose t-shirts, hell we were the super stars ; ))

patsy, martin and john had arrived in ba that morning, taxi'd straight to the port (100km north of ba) to collect the support truck and then turned back south to mdp, more than 600km south. arriving late that night, about midnight, it was such a relief to be a team finally. we'd travelled down in shorts and t-shirts, so the journey on the bikes to the villa was a little chilly, not to mention a little hairy - they don't always stop at red lights if the think the road is clear....when in rome!! we had no real idea where we were going, just hoping we were not being led down the garden path.

waking up in the beautiful villa in it's tranquil setting was such a contrast to the noisy and busy streets city of ba. having caught up with the team, we all crashed just after midnight, but in spite of everything we were all up by about 0630-0700.....the adrenaline was beginning to kick in. it was a chilled day, packing final bits of kit, trying everything on for the first time and checking everything fitted well. i really felt calm about the whole thing; i had the best team, an awesome bike, the best kit i could muster (i even did a strip tease to camera to demonstrate the kit i was using and why - video to follow!) and here i was, prepping for the dakar in a villa with a pool next to am 18 hole golf course, this was surreal.

although d-day was 3 days away, we had scrutineering the next day and this meant the bikes would be in parc ferme from tomorrow night. so the bikes were fully prepared and loaded with spare tools and parts. my tool bag was a sight to behold.....some lucky fucker has it now, they have no idea what went into getting that right. it's only now that i have filed my insurance claim that the pain has really set in.

my room before everything got nicked

the view from my bedroom

straight to work, but what a location for it, happy days

photo opportunity on the veranda

just reflecting on this image, it is hard to believe that we were really there. jago and lucy found this place and it was spot on. well away from the chaos of mar del plata, where the intensity of the dakar would have been on you the whole time. we had space, time and calm to work in, it was so important to me in this final stage.

dakar - day 3 & 4 - 26-27th december 2011

this is one boxing day i'll not forget, as i went on national television! mesas de campeones, the oldest and most popular motorsport programme. thanks to mariano, who had so far sorted out my hotel, invited me to his family christmas lunch, introduced me to his friends including some charming spanish girls, he now took me into the studio to join a panel of guests for the hour long programme. only expecting to watch, i did end up with about 30 seconds of fame; i recorded the clip below of the television later that day!!

putting on  my make-up

more imporantly, i met gato, a fellow dakar biker, (who had sadly pulled out on day 6 (i think) of the 2011 dakar, but was about to join us in 2012), as well as a number of other competitors, driving cars, trucks, and riding quads and bikes, all from argentina of course!

crossing buenos aires on tubes and buses i really got a feel of the city and it was great having 2 amazing tour guides with mariano and valeria. they even took me to supper at an amzing restuarant where i ate my first (of many) argentinian steaks and they were every bit as tasty as i had been told. i say 'they' as i had 2! normally you could not stomach so much meat, but it really was so tender it just melted in your mouth.....needed to keep my protein intake up : ))

woke up the following day to a, you guessed it,  another blue sky - i was liking this sunshine and heat....for the moment anyway! while we're on the subject of heat, when i left london it was about 3-4 centigrade, when i arrived in ba it was about 28c, mar del plata was a little warmer, but the temperature in fiambala on day 5 went up to a staggering 52c, nearly twice as hot as ba!!!! anyway, today we were meeting jago, picking up our bikes and jago's truck, before heading to the surf club where mariano taught kite-surfing and was hosting a pre-dakar sponsorship party; similar to the gig we had with ross and the dakar veterans back in december, but this was a pool party, at a surf club by the sea/ river, in summer.

jago and his family had left the uk for south america mid december, but flew via rio to meet with his wife's relations there. they had then sailed together on a cruise ship to buenos aires, arriving in time to catch a taxi to my hotel from where we met up with a very close friend of mariano's, andres. in his toyota hi-lux pick-up and mariano's support vehicle, we heading to the port, about 100km north of ba. andres, was a really interesting guy, an industrial engineer who had studied and met his argentine wife in calaifornia. incredibly supportive of mariano's dream, he was going to follow him all the way to lima with his wife and new born child! but for today, he was helping with the transport. 
 

mariano's dkr spirit team van and trailer arriving at the port

queue number 2 inside a container

outside we are greeted by all the trucks, cars, trucks and quads

hundreds of them!

and our bikes!! carefully wrapped up

the ship they came across the atlantic in

stan watt's teamfrontrow gb!

 the bikes were in great condition, they had been loaded with care, wrapped up in polyfoam, tied down in their own section of the large pallet with new straps and there was no sign of any dampness or corrosion. but even though the batteries had been disconnected the battery had still lost it's charge. so we kick-started the bikes in flip-flops and head out of the port.

it was a large port, so it was quite a long drive and being on a bike i jumped the queue or cars. the drivers did not seem to worry, but when the armed police or army, not sure which, tried to stop me, i cut between the cars to the otherside of the traffic and kept going....the armed men were not impressed....i eventually came to a stop! they basically wanted to scan all the vehicles for drugs, arms and illegal imigrants - where they thought i was going to hide mine, i have no idea??

3 bikes loaded onto a 2 bike trailer

having loaded the bikes the next challenge was to find somewhere in town to park jago's truck for 3-4 weeks, a bit like driving into london with a 30-40 foot lorry and looking for somewhere large and safe enough to park that isn't going to cost an arm and a leg and so that was the end to my plan of chilling out in a park or beach somewhere!

"i know i put the keys here somewhere??)

after crossing ba top to bottom, we eventually found the suggested parking spot in front of the holiday inn, in downtown ba - equivalent to the embankment i guess! - and with a little help jago parked up, but the us$1,500 bill meant we needed to look elsewhere. so, via the port for some advice, we headed through the middle of the city to a car-park, that was probably only twice the size of the truck in what was the equivalent of soho. at least the truck had aircon and a good sound system to while away the afternoon ; )

not too much traffic

the bus fits, so sure we can

"yep, stop there jago!"

having made it through to the otherside of town (we've crossed ba twice now), i guessed my way back to the surf club where i had briefly been with mariano the day before. fortunately the owner allowed jago to park there for the night, but the long term parking solution was still to be worked out. still, it was a beautiful location and i was looking forward to the party.

jago's trucked parked up finally, in the safety of the surf club

guests arriving

poolside - behind the crowd are 3 stunning bikes!

lawn to the beach, next stop uruguay!

chilling out in the evening sun, i remember watching the kite surfers, windsurfers and canoeists playing on the choppy sea, when this very skilled, gorgeous, blond, fit, tanned female kite surfer came flying up the short channel to the clubhouse beach, dropped her sail at the last second, jumped of their board, landing softly on the grass, unclipped her straps and jogged over the lawn to her friends, all in one elegant motion, it was a sight to behold!

there were about 250 guests who came to see the bikes, the riders and now jago's amazing truck. mariano, who ran his surf school from this clubhouse, introduced us to everyone, he was a great host. fortunately most people there spoke very good english which made things a little easier. we were invited to be interviewed on the main radio station, live from the poolside, supper and beer provided gratis, we were treated very well and all because of their love for the dakar.

i still found it amazing though, all this support for jago and i, i mean obviously mariano was their hero, but they all wanted us, were willing us to finish and we had not even started!! and this was the case throughout argentina, it was incredible, they really really love the dakar and what it stands for in terms of adventure, hardship, passion and commaraderie, everyone pitched in where they could whether it was a pat on the back, or a lift to the port, they all wanted to be part of the journey, it was inspiring.