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!