<< back

UAE Desert Challenge 2001   Oldies but Goodies! ( Frank & Klaus 'Team Alstom' )

 

The UAE Desert Challenge 2000 just had finished and the madness started from scratch! A new love was born, ....... competing in Desert Rallies! The pain, the agony and disappointments were archived as history and we found our self middle in the preparations for the 2001 rally.  

During the 2000 Rallye I had fallen in love with the 'Real Factory Rallye bikes' from KTM and had decided to get one for my next rallye. In my previous live I learned, if you want something and you got the money for, ... you just buy it! ..... not a rule for the KTM rallye bikes, the KTM Rallye660 ! Three month of countless telephone calls all over Europe were required, to get hold on a reasonable Rallye660. Lots of expensive scrap and  obsolete and worn out models, did not even come close to my dream of a new rallye bike! Due to a model change at KTM, the old one wasn't produced any longer & the price for the new model was just 'un payable', without a big sponsor. 18.000,-Euro will have to be paid to KTM in advance and still only a small series of 50 bikes being built once a year, mainly for the competitors of the Dakar rallye!

Thanks to 'Allah' , I finally got hold on a Model 2000 Rallye660, which after several nights and endless work, was ready for some practice in the desert! 

KTM Rallye660

A cockpit like an Airbus .... riding also feels the same!

The bike and the added power, immediate requested me to 'upgrade' my pure muscle strength and physical fitness! I spent every single weekend, to be out for practice with my friends and soon the skills of handling the bike and my physical fitness improved. The hard work from my first day out with the bike turned into fun. we got used to each other and we soon started 'flying' through the desert, .... like the word describes! But only that way, you can reach your limits and falling in the desert, usually ends in soft sand, which is not too bad at the end! 

Preparations

The Team members had to be selected. Without a good Service Team, no rider will ever see the finish line in a rallye! Riding 300 - 500Km´a day and then doing the service on the bike ( sometimes all night long ), is just too much and getting dangerous for riding next day. ... this would be foolish!

My Finnish friend Jukka Sorvalli agreed to fly in to Dubai and take responsibility of the logistics and the GPS service. At almost all the rallies, the French company ERTF is renting GPS's to the riders, which I also did, to get used to it. On top, I installed my own GPS as a backup device! Still a lot of private riders only use their own GPS and do need the service to have the new waypoints loaded to the GPS every evening. I had started this service for a few friends in 2000 rallye and now was expected to carry on with that .... 50 to 80 waypoints, loaded manually every evening, service points and all in form of North & West Coordinates ... lots of work. Thanks Jukka, this worked perfectly and I also mostly rode following my own GPS, as the display of the ERTF unit, most of the time was unreadable for me!       

Day 1 - Prolog in Dubai:

 Like every year, a show race for the spectators and the media. Still. lots of riders can't control themselves, due to the long awaited day X, .... the start of the rally! Useless to report, that I also joined these group of riders and came of the track at the first corner. l hadn't learned from last year! But what the hell, the bike worked fine and it was a beautiful day, without an accident ... this is , what finally counts!

Day 2 - Abu Dhabi - Liwa ( 415Km ):

 I encountered my first climax shortly after riding 10Km's. When I thought having reached a pretty stable and fast riding level, I was passed by Cyril Depres ( KTM Factory Rider), who had started shortly behind me. I had already passed a few riders, but Cyril seemed to be on wings!? Just had passed me , he disappeared in a dust cloud ... no way to go this speed and follow him. The good thing about that, ... he staid the only one to pass me that day! Soon I reached a group of riders, where my friend Bernd and KTM factor lady  Andrea Mayer were riding. Easily I passed them and also pulled away next moment, not allowing them to follow my tracks, without navigation! The most difficult part, was passing Andrea, ..amazing, how this lady is riding this heavy motorbike and she is surely riding better then 80% of all the male competitors!

Half way down to the service point, I encountered problems with my road book. Somehow the notes displayed, were always a few Km ahead of my current position. On top the paper roll started cutting itself in the middle of the roll .... the nice word shi...!!?? rolled over my lips, but it even came worse. Suddenly there was something swinging around my road book, bouncing back and then over the handlebars .... the GPS antenna had come loose and bounced around on the connection cable! Before I even started thinking, my engine stopped running and I became slower and slower ... the antenna had hit and switched off the Main Electric switch. On the cruise, I powered up the switch, the engine fired and the bike started moving again. This continued another 5-6 times, till I reached the service point .... lucky I've been, that it didn't happen at the beginning.

Shone was smiling, when he approached me and reported, that there have only 5-6 bikes arrived ahead of me. I had started in 25th position and didn't realize, how many riders I had passed .. maybe, they all got lost somewhere? Even PG Lundmark hasn't jet arrived and the banana started changing color to brown .... he had terrible lost the track and only arrived 1/2 hour later! He was so exhausted, that besides the banana, he also emptied all our water supplies! 

The road book was fixed, the antenna taped to the fairing and off I went. On the remaining part to Liwa, I had no further problems with the bike, but had to drive All the way on my own, without seeing any other rider. This is very difficult, as you can loose concentration and an heavy accident could be the result! But all went fine.

When the time sheets were presented in the evening, I found myself in an unbelievable 7th position Overall and 2nd position in the Marathon Class! This was a perfect start into the race and I had even taken lots of time from people like Stanovich & Tim Hutten on the brand-new KTM Rallye Replica ( ... hopefully, this is being read by one or the other potential sponsor!!)?

Day 3 - Liwa Roundtrip ( 350Km ):

To take the tension of the story, .... this was going to become my worst day of the rallye. You finish in the top position, you also have to start early! Only went to bed at 02:00 A.M. and had to get up at 04:30 A.M. ... breakfast 05:30!! Later the start had to be delayed, due to heavy fog by 2.0hours!! The start was performed in groups of two riders and I started with Francois Flick ( several Dakar starts and finish in top 15 ). I decided to let him go and follow in save distance, which was no problem at all. On a splitting road, I decided to take another route then him and in the evening it turned out as a very good decision. The track he had chosen, ended in a Subka, where 6 cars and 10 motorbikes got stuck. The riders had to be airlifted by helicopter and the vehicles later recovered by the organizers. Unluckily, also my Team mate Frank was in this group! For some time, I found myself in position 6!

Hardly time to sit down!

When I dumped my bike in a sand hole, I was passed by a group of riders, including Andrea , Tim and Stanovich and my friend Bernd ... seems they all were after the girl! Along with Bernd, we shortly after caught the group again, till it was Bernds time to get almost buried under his bike! After recovery, we stayed together and were also passed by PG Lundmark, who came a long way from the back. A 'spinning wheel' and the sand directly into my face, turned out to be a 'Thank You' for the supporter from yesterday .... Swedish humor, I think! We were currently ranked in position 9 and 10 and wanted to take it a little easy. Bernd was leading and I just followed, which was a mistake ... I hit some camel gras and rolled over the handlebars. When I woke up , Bernd was counting me down like a boxer, asked the number of fingers he is showing. He wanted to check my status! Stars in the air and worst ... pain in the shoulder. I had dislocated my collarbone. Don't call the heli and the doctors, I said to Bernd. It would have been the end of the rallye. I asked him to lift the bike and get me on the same. I wanted to finish the remaining 150Km's. After 15 minutes cruising, I could increase the speed and we have even passed a few riders again till the finish. BUT, ... immediate after passing the finish, I collapsed and first had to recover for a few minutes, before we could start the road stage back to the bivouac, another 80Km's. Still we had finished in positions 11th and 12th!

Back there, I first took some pain killers, as I had to avoid going to the doctor and being taken out of the race and went to bed! Jukka and Nico worked all night, to get the bike ready for next day ... just in case, if I would try to carry on.

Day 4 - Liwa South Roundtrip ( 330Km ):          

Front wheel up & bumps get easier to ride

I felt like a 5 year old boy, who has to be dressed in the morning by his mom! I needed 2 people to get my pants on and even for the gloves, I had to rely on Nico. I was unable to dress myself. I didn't know, why I did this, but I thought, that the team, who had worked all night, deserved, that I gave it a try. I took two more tablets and went into the race. ..... AND, once riding, I didn't almost feel anything, caught Bernd a few minutes later and together stormed through the field of riders started ahead of us...... till I got stuck in a hole. Due to my weakness, I asked Bernd to carry on without me, as agreed before the start. I took the bike out, gave it a rest and after a few minutes, didn't even remember, how to spell 'giving up'!

On my own and for some time with the German rider Klütsch, I carried on and also picked up one by one rider. Things started moving well and I had a good feeling and after another 2 hours ride, again had closed up to the group of riders around my friend Bernd. And then the next problem was in the queue. Due to my shoulder, trying to catch up to Bernds group again, I had forgotten, to readjust the clearance of my clutch cable! We just managed to get to the service point and should have fixed the clutch there, which we didn't do ....a big mistake!

50Km's after I had to stop in a Subka with the broken clutch. Nico & Jukka managed to get me a new clutch middle in the desert and I fixed the bike. Still it happened, that I was too late to the last checkpoint and was penalized with an 8.0 hour penalty! This was the end of the top 15 dream! Checking the bike in the bivouac, we also discovered, that there was a strange sound in the engine .... the Oil filter was blocked by the clutch particles and probably damaged the connecting rod. The KTM mechanics told me: .. a time bomb, .. can last 20Km's or go another 500Km's! I had overcome so many problems during this rallye and was committed, to see the finish! Just another 450Km's and I decided to keep the speed low for stage 4 ... never more then 120Km max and low engine revs were the approach!

Last day Liwa - Sweihan (450Km):

Off we go, .. with a time bomb under my seat! I kept sticking to my handicap and never went faster then 120Km. The way, like some passing competitors looked at me, was depressing. They must have thought, that I'm too scared of going faster. What the hack, ... to finish was the goal! Long time I rode along another friend of mine .... Chris Cargil, the owner of 'Sandstorm Motorcycles' in Dubai. He was about, to break another record for his own. Having done the rallye on a motorbike and in a car, he also finished the rally on an ATV ( Quad ) this time! A funny fellow and we had a lot of fun during riding and this helped to make it to the end, even almost falling asleep, due to the low speed , I was moving. Very close to the finish (.. just some 2 Km's ), PG Lundmark, one more time, was good for a sensation. He had lost his rear tire at a speed of 200Km flat-out .. the mouse became too hot, had collapsed and the tire just evaporated from the wheel. He was lucky, that he didn't crash, but made it to the finish, riding on the rim! There we mounted another tire for him, so he could ride the road stage down to Dubai and make it to the official finish ramp. After I had passed the finish line, where the Team and my wife was waiting, I couldn't hold my tears. I was so happy, having really finished my first World Cup Rallye. Out of 100 started motorbikes, I had still made it home in 30th position overall!

Home - with wife, son & dog

'PG' - with his 'One Wheeler' !

PG Lundmark ... where is my Banana ?

 

Thanks to Our Sponsor !

Age Ain't No Fear!   .......  the track is the challange!

<< top