UAE
Desert
Challenge
2001
My second World CUP Rallye - Abu Dhabi
A year later with more experience - a new attempt to get through without major damage!
The UAE Desert Challenge 2000 had just ended and a few weeks later the madness started all over again! A new love was born - desert rallies are the new challenge! The pain, agony and disappointments of the DC2000 was put aside and I found myself in the middle of preparing for next year's rally!
During the Rally 2000 I fell in love with the real factory bikes from KTM and decided to tackle the next rally with a real KTM rally bike. In my previous life I learned one thing - if you have something in your mind - just do it! Or it will be circling in your head for a lifetime! After three months and countless phone calls, it seemed impossible to source a KTM Rallye660! The bikes available were all junk! Another reason was the model change from KTM to the new Rallye Replica 660!
But the costs for this bike could not be covered without a good sponsor. 18,000 euros must be paid to KTM in advance and only a small series of 50 motorcycles are built once a year, primarily for the Dakar participants!
Thanks to 'Allah' I finally found a Ralley 660, which a British guy in the UAE had forgotten in his garage - a few nice words and it was mine! A Rallye 660 built in 2000 was reconditioned into an almost new rally bike during many long nights!
The first trips were rather sobering. I was used to the KTM Adventure which I had full under control when riding - the Rallye660 gave me a lot of trouble at first - the performance was a lot better, but the suspension and chassis with the big patrol tanks took a lot time of getting used to it !
One thing was immediately clear - now the pilote has to work on his body and stat doing so by going to the gym. Otherwise the bike will ride me - not the other way around! In addition, we did countless training trips on the weekends. A biker in Europe can only dream of this and it is an extreme bonus that expats living in UAE like I could do! Slowly I got used to the bike and soon I felt like never having raced a better bike like this one .
The limits were soon found and pretty soon I was able to take the bike where I wanted it to go! A few falls are usually not a problem in the desert - the sand is very forgiving - if you can get the fall right :)
Preparations
To ride some 300 - 500 km per day at the rallye and then do a service in the evening is almost impossible - at least for me! So a team had to be put together again. My Finnishfriend Jukka Sorvalli flew in and took over the logistics and the service via GPS from private riders, which were not in a position to load the organizer provided gps data themselfs to the GPS. Actually I never wanted to do that again, but it was a very good financial bonus to my budget. I myself used the new developed ERTF GPS to get used to the new technology. In addition, I also had my own GPS installed as a backup device! Thanks Jukka, it worked perfectly and I mostly drove with my own GPS because the ERTF-GPS display was very difficult to read for me!
The second helper was my son Nico (17 years old) who doesn't need an introduction to the desert or desert riding. He basically grew up here and it's only a matter of time before we will probably change positions and he will ride & I do the service! A rallye where father and son will compete also would be a big dream for me - let's see what the years will bring?
Two other team members were my South African friends Shone & Kim, who immediately took on the worst job to be done.
They took over the service point in Al Ain - Al Qua, which brought took them a 880 km trip forward / bacjward by car - incredible and thanks for that!
Day 1 - Prologue in Dubai:
Like every year, a sort of show race for spectators and media, but also to move out the starting positions for the first day. Hardly any rider can control himself - the adrenaline is pumping through the venes and is boiling since days :) It makes no sense to explain that I was not an exception and came off the track again and also missed the first corner. Seems I hadn't learned anything from the previous year! But what the hell, the bike works great and it was a wonderful day without an accident - that counts!
LIWA - Empty Quarter
Rub Al Khali dunes
Day 2 - Abu Dhabi - Liwa (415 km):
From the start in Abu Dhabi we first had to go on a road stage of 50 km to the start of the first special stage in the desert. After all the preparations over the past few months, it's strange to see what can happen in the first few kilometers of a rally! Marc Dullum's ICO gave up on the way to the start - the battery was defective but luckily we managed to fix this before it started!
In addition to our own service, this year we are also providing service at the checkpoints for PG Lundmark, who had bought an ex-works BMW with a 1150 cm3 engine and wanted to annoy the KTM factory riders. His mechanic was Holger Roth - ex works mechanic at KTM - a legend in Dakar rallye sport! For PG the rally was the last real test before the Dakar rallye!
One of the most important tasks of our service team was always to have a "BANANA" ready for him at each service point - that was more important to him rather than looking after his bike :) .... he's a real cool fellow!
I had hardly started the race and was very confident of having a pretty fast ride - till Cyril Depres (KTM Factory) literally flew past me like there was no tomorrow. I myself had already overtaken a couple of riders and thought I was doing well - but Cyril most probably thinks very much differently about that :) The good thing about it ... he was the only one who passed me that day! I soon reached a group of riders like my friend Bernd and KTM factor rider Andrea Mayer. It wasn't difficult to pass them and also to make some distance so that they wouldn't just follow my navigation. The most difficult thing about it was to overtake Andrea - it's amazing how she drives this heavy motorcycle. Definitely better than 80% of all male competitors!
Halfway to the service point, I ran into problems with the road book. The showing positions always was a few km further up than I really was located and at the top the roll of paper began to split into two parts ?? XX * Shi ... t was the only thing that came to my mind! !! ?? And that wasn't all * suddenly something swung around my road book, bounced back and then over the handlebars ... the GPS antenna had come loose and was just hanging on the cable like a yo-yo! Before I could think about a solution and what to do, suddenly my engine went off - shit .... e !!! "! Thank goodness - no engine problem - the arial flying around hit the main power switch and turned it off - unbelievable !! Didn't stop and put the switch on again during the ride, which happened another 5-6 times until I reached the service point.
Shone met me with a smile, calmed me down and reported that so far there were only 5-6 bikes at the service point.
I started in 25th place and didn't know how many rides I had overtaken. Maybe they were all lost somewhere? Even PG Lundmark hasn't yet reached here! His banana was already starting to turn brown. It turned out that he was totally lost on navigation and came to the service point a little later. In addition to the banana, he also emptied the team's entire water supply there :)
The road book was repaired, the antenna glued to the fairing and off I went. On the remaining way down to Liwa I had no more problems, but had to drive the entire route alone without seeing another rider. This is very difficult as you could lose focus and crash violently! But everything went well.
When the times for day 2 were posted before dinner, I was in an incredible 7th place overall and 2nd in the marathon class! This was of course a perfect start to the race and I had also taken a lot of time from well-known people like Stanovich & Tim Hutten on their brand new KTM Rallye Replica riders (... hopefully this will be read by one or the other potential sponsor !!)?
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PG Lundmark - Dakar Legend - Water & Banana :)
Across the Rub Al Khali
OVERALL - SS1 - Position 7
Marathon Class - SS1 - Position 2
Day 3 - Liwa North - Roundtrip (350 km):
Unfortunately, this should become another bad day. As soon as you are lining up on start in a top position you have to start quite early, of course. We have gone to bed around 2:00 PM but had to get up at 4:30 AM. ... Breakfast 05:30 am !! Once ready to race, we learned that the start was delayed by two hours due to fog and the helicopter not able to take off! That meant hanging out in the dunes and waiting ! The start was carried out in groups of two riders and I started with the French Francois Flick (who has already had a few Dakar starts and Top 15 finishers). I decided to just let him go and then follow at a safe distance if possible. That wasn't a problem for a long time until he took a path at one point in the dunes that I couldn't really read on my road book? I decided to follow my road book, which I found to be a good decision later in the evening! The route he had chosen ended in a subqa (plain area between the high dunes) where 6 cars and 10 motorcycles got stuck and couldn't get out any longer. They had to be flown out by choppers and the vehicles later recovered by the organizers. Unfortunately, my team-mate Frank Maschong also was in this group! Suddenly I was running in position 6 for a while, till I barried my bike in a bowl (... a large sand hole) and lost a lot of time. Once back I was totally exhausted.
Luckily a group of riders passed with my friend Bernd, Stanovich and Andrea Mayer. Looked like they were all after the girl :)
Bernd helped me out of the hole and shortly afterwards we caught up with the group of Andrea again. After a quiet ride to relax, PG Lundmark passed us roaring and had to show us his drivingstyle by covering us with a big sand fountain from his spinning rear wheel! Is this swedish humor?
Bernd and I managed to drive up to positions 9 and 10 and wanted to take things a little easier. Bernd led and I just followed, which was a mistake ... I became unfocused, hit a camel grass and went over the handlebars. When I woke up, Bernd counted me out like a boxer and asked how many fingers he was showing. He wanted to check my awareness and status! Stars in the air and a strange feeling in the shoulder was the first I felt. I had dislocated my collarbone where it connects to the breast below the throat. Don't call the helicopter and the doctors, I said to Bernd. Don't want to be taken out of the rallye ! I asked him to pick up the bike and help me back on it. I just wanted to finish the stage - some 150 km left. After 15 minutes of riding I was even able to increase the pace and we also repassed a few other riders before the finish line. But - once I went off the bike behind the finish Icollapsed and had to recover for a few minutes before we could start the road stage back to the bivouac, which were another 80 km. Nevertheless, we were still in positions 11 and 12 overall after the day! In the paddock, I first took some severe painkillers and went to bed - I really wanted to avoid being taken out of the race by the doctor! , Jukka and Nico worked all night to get the bike ready for the next day ... just in case I may try to get to the start next day.
That is fun
Camel grass - watch out!
Day 4 - Liwa South - Roundtrip (330 km):
For breakfast I first had a high dose of painkillers, some bread and then two helpers to get into my pants and gloves, Nico probably needed 1/2 hour just to dress me - I couldn't do anything myself! ... what is this going to be today? I didn't know why I was doing this, but I thought the team that had worked all night deserved me at least to try! I took two more pills and went into the race. ..... AND after a while of riding I hardly felt any pain. I cought Bernd and we got on relatively quickly and moved through the field ... until I got stuck again in a small bowle. Because of my weakness & the insury I asked Bernd to head off on his own. First I dug out the bike, took a rest to recover and thought very badly to give up and end the rallye.
But then again I decided to try again and drove with the German Kluetsch for a while, with whomwe slowly caught up with a few other riders. Slowly I recovered, got a better feeling again and after about 2 hours we caught up again with the group of riders and also my friend Bernd. And then I had made the next mistake - probably because of the pain and numb shoulder, I forgot to readjust the gap of my clutch at the last service point ... a fatal mistake!
The clutch started spinning in the dunes till there was no riding possible any longer. I still managed another 50km , but then had to stop in a Subqa. Nico & Jukka luckily were not to far and managed to get me new clutch discs, which I replaced in th edunes - ithis basically is not allowed, but you take what you get?
Due to the long repair, I didn't get to the last checkpoint in time and thus got myself a time penalty of 8 hours! This was finally the end of my top 15 dream! When we checked the bike in the bivouac, we also noticed that a strange noise in the engine. The oil filter was blocked by the clutch particles and had probably already led the connecting rod bearing to suffer from that. An old problem of this bike! The KTM mechanics told me: .. a time bomb .. can last 20 km or run another 500 km! I had overcome quite a few problems during this rally and was determined to reach my goal! Only 450 km to the end of the rallye and I decided to keep the speed & engine RPM low on the last stage and never drive more than 120 km maximum top speed!
Day 5 - Liwa - Sweihan (450 km):
Let's sit on this "time bomb" and ride it! I held on to my handicap and never drove faster than 120 km. The way some competitors passed and looked at me was depressing. They probably thought I was exhausted or a "wimp"? To hell with those stupid thoughts - finishing the rally is the goal of today!For a long time I rode with another good friend ... Chris Cargil, the owner of 'Sandstorm Motorcycles' in Dubai. He was about to break another record for himself. After completing the rally on a motorcycle, a car and a truck, he was about to finish the rally again and now on an ATV (quad)! I don't know anyone who managed that before. A funny guy and we had a lot of fun driving and lots of time to "fool around" which also helped us mentaly to get through to the end.
And then another surprise! About 2 km before the finish of the special stage I cought up with PG Lundmark again, who is always good for something very special. He had lost his tire inclusive mousse at a speed of close to 200 km he said!! Tires and mousse flew off at full speed! This is only possible with a BMW because of the special swing arm! The mousse probably got too hot because of the powerful engine. He then drove the rest of the distance just on the rim - and that for 2km 's!
At the finish we quickly fitted another tire for him so he could still manage the road section of 80 km to the final rallye finish!
And I did it too - I was in tears when my wife took me in her arms at the finish and clapped hands with Nico, the friends and even our dog! I was so happy having actually finished my first World Cup rally. Out of 100 motorcycles started, I still made it home in 30th place, fighting all miseries and insury!
PG Lundmark - just too much Power !!
We quickly fitted a new tire so that it could make it through the road stage!
Happy reaching home and seeing the family!
Even the dog was happy that I was safe back home again :)
