dakar stage 1: mar del plata to santa rosa de la pampa 820km

day 9 - 1st january 2012

liaison 763km

special 57km

total 820km

start time 05:45

another beautiful and warm morning. we had a 7am start time, but nothing to do other than freshen up, eat, change and climb into the support truck. the mood was pretty relaxed on the whole, perhaps a little too relaxed as were soon racing to parc ferme to avoid missing our start time.

if i had any doubts about what i was doing, they were soon blown away when two beautiful argentine girls, still celebrating the new year, gave me a smacker on each cheek - you'll see this in the video when i get it onto youtube!

unfortunately when we arrived at the entrance to parc ferme we had to walk in our race gear for about 800m and still had to fit roadbooks.

jago had problems starting his bike and then it kept konking out, so by the time we crossed the start line we'd already incurred our first of many penalties! we pulled over a 100m later to fit the roadbooks and patsy was passing by so came over to look at jago's bike.

jago sorting out his bike with martin, 100m from the start

then we were off. although early in the morning it was warming up and so i was keen to get moving. but this proved difficult with the huge numbers of supporters on the roadside and on the road; just under a million people lined the streets!!

and so the dakar began. an 820km stage to santa rosa de la pampa, with an approximately 50km special some 100km in (can't remember exactly).

it was incredible seeing all the roads lined with supporters, all waving, cheering, smiling and all taking photos! we'd been warned that you soon tired of waving and it is true; you feel guilty as you know they've been building up to this one moment and travelled miles to get there. we tried to oblige as often as we could : )

but then it was my turn to pull over. my oil cooler was losing oil and it was covering everything, including my goggles! got the 19mm spanner out and tightened the nut as much as possible before moving on.

no sooner had we arrived at the start of the special we were hurried to the start line and were off. this was the first time i had ridden the rally bike in anger and it was the first time i'd ridden a bike since the  convoy in london 6 weeks before! i was fully laden with water, tools, new kit, nav equipment, fuel and so you could say i was not feeling totally at one with the bike.

it was an incredible setting though, situated only meters from the atlantic ocean, on the hard rock cliff the flowed easily for the first few km before hitting the first south american sand. jago's bike had stopped once again, so i pulled over to assist. i can't remember exactly it was that we did, but we got it going and received a huge cheer from the crowds.

it was a very short special, but we had to takle some pretty steep and pretty large dunes considering this was a beach and day 1 of the dakar. but soon enough we were racing over sandy tracks between the pampus grass and then it was over. only 600km or so to go!

patsy and co were pulled up on the side of the road shortly after the special, so they had another look at my oil cooler which still seemed to be leaking. there was a real air of excitement and relief from all the riders. it was exciting to be riding along on the dakar route, waving at the crowds, but it was a relief to have started and finished the first special safely.


unknown to a lot of us was the death of the argentine rider jorge boero (#175). he was only a few km short of the special finish line when he came off and the impact (possible on the handlebars) caused a cardiac arrest. medical help was at the scene within 5 minutes but whilst being airlifted to hospital, he died.


i had met him for the first time only a few days before at the ool party, he wa a good friend of mariano and gato's; it must have been very hard on them. 21 riders have died since he dakar's inception in 1979, another 17 competitors and spectators have also lost their lives taking part in this rally....the dakar takes no prisoners. 

one of our many fuel stops!

temperatures rose to about 42c, the roads were very straight, the seat was hard and journey was long. the monotony only broken by the emergence of spectators, mainly sheltering in the shade of the trees that lined portions of the roadsides; they must have travelled miles and left so early to get here ahead of us!

riding through santa rosa - photo c/o maximiliano buss

we arrived ahead of the support crew, but it was a relief to be at our first bivouac, see the layout, have our first taste of the food, shower and toilet facilities, briefing - it was the only one i made it to!! sorry chris, no offence ; )