Stage 8: Atar to Tichit

Daily Updates from David on Patricia's progress in the Dakar Rally

Photo: Patricia on Special Stage 6 : looking confident in the dunes.... look closely...is that a traffic cop behind her? - about to give a speeding ticket?

FROM DAVID: Sunday January 14 2007

(connection 35km, special 589km, connection 2km, total 626km)

After Rest-Day yesterday in Atar, during which Bernie completely disassembled and re-assembled Patricia's bike, today was the longest special section of the Rally. It was Patricia's latest finish - arriving in camp at about 10pm, after three hours riding in the dark. Werner was close by for most of the day, but he slowed down in the final 2 hours, so Patricia went ahead to camp. She sounded pretty exhausted tonight, and said she spent a lot of energy picking up the bike... a few times. Apparently, when it falls over the lights go off, which is not a good idea when the trucks are catching you up at 150km/hr in the dark !

The days rankings have not yet emerged. Even Eurosport were struggling tonight, as the bikers were so strung out - some will only arrive in time to set straight off again tomorrow!

So..... Bikes, Cars and Trucks....what is the difference? Apart from the obvious number of wheels....

In Lisbon I made the following observations:

Trucks : These are big, very very big. They look big in the photos and on the TV, but when you get close to them, they are monstrously big! Their wheels are about as tall as me. The main pre-occupation of the trucks, seems to be to look menacing and grumpy. Their drivers are not too disimilar from what I saw - you would not want to pick a fight with them, or expect a lot of friendly chit-chat.

Cars : Very different. They are very pretty and seem to be built on the basis that being the best looking may just win the Dakar. The colours are luminescent and vibrant and they are incredibly polished. The big manufacturers (VW and Mitsubishi) have "mine is better than yours" competitions on cleanliness, fleet size and driver smartness. Mitsubishi won in the hotel in Lisbon, but VW are winning on the sand !

Bikes : Apart from the big factory teams, whose machines are just as polished as the car teams, there is an abundance of privateers. Whilst car drivers will discuss tyre pressures and speeds, bikers don't say very much - they just walk up and inspect the wiring on everyone else's bike. I'm not sure what the fascination with wires is, but it is defintely the way to impress a fellow biker. ie my loom is better than yours. When people first approached Patricia's bike and started fondling the wiring, I thought they were saboteurs, but then I saw the love in their eyes as they ran their fingers over the wire loom and perfect joints made in Schek base-camp, Wangen. I'm sure they are normal people really!

Looking ahead to Monday : Tichit to Nema; connection 0km, special 494km, connection 3km. A total desert stage with very few landmarks - the good navigators will gain some considerable advantage. The poor navigators will have to follow tracks and hope that camels cannot ride motorbikes. The aim is to get into camp before dark - as then the challenge multiplies rapidly.