So I dont know if LSS or anyone else has been doing this, but if you are a rally nut then you probably have.
Zooming in and rotating some of the pics, it is possible to see what the guys will be riding into. I'll give you a hit what goes through a pilots mind as he marks and later rides to his road book. Trust me, its not about work or problems at home.
Taking the last photo above, you will notice a couple of things. 1stly, the guy is not sure of his symbols, he has a list of symbols there to refer to.
Second is that he has just started with his road book and is marking the 1st few km of the special stage. Don whinge about the poor quality of the image - When you are racing, you will be lucky to see the road book this well!
The first 5 km is relatively straight, full gas stuff after the initial left hand turn. After 40m it looks like it is off-piste or off road. At best it will be a barely visible track. I cant read the bearing, but am pretty sure there will be no track.
3.7 Km in there is something a pole or a drum or more likely an aardvark hole you have ride around. Not a major caution but one worth mentioning.
at 5 km there are two more aardvark holes to avoid, something that requires one to slow down to or it will kill you, a triple Caution. !!! Hence the red highlight. Route goes straight on the original bearing and is still off piste (HP)
Plain sailing for another 4km before you have to watch out for something on the left (AG actually means keep left, but Alexander is a dutchy so he likes to screw things up for the Frenchmen, so when Alex says AG it means stay TF away from the left or die). Still riding HP , off piste.
At 9.41km you have to stay away from some bad shit on the RHS, still off piste.
Cant read what is at 9.5km just 90m later (which is nothing when youre doing 150km/hr) but there is no caution so its probably a turn or a welcome confirmatory landmark in the road book.
At 11.3km (I can tell from subtracting the 1.7? km noted in the bottom right corner of the following distance 13.02 marker) there is a single caution I would slow down a little for. Not sure what it is, but I would not want to end my race on it.
Then there is a fence line crossing at 15.86km, a good point to calibrate my ICO.
Then there is a fence or gate crossing before NBX or "many" nasty aardvark holes about where his finger is pointing. Still off road or off piste. Cant believe they will be riding this far without a confirmatory heading, so I reckon there must be a faint track they are following.
.99km? later there is moerse aardvark hole in the middle of the road, followed by a dip that will break your legs off if you dont slow down, or send over the bars if you dont stand up at 20.71 km Not the dotted line also indicating HP or of piste.
So far this will have been a fast track, I'm thinking. Top guys will be pumping here at 120-150km/hr. Better hope the aardvarke arent digging more holes tonight.
At 22.83 there a welcome landmark, the ruins of a house or some building on the left. Good place to check your ICO reading against the road book and calibrate it to match.
On this note, if you look very carefully at the tulip diagram at 20.71 AND 22.83, the photograph is clear enough to pick up the small, think tick mark (or line) at 45 degrees down to the right from the main route. This tick is the exact point that distance is taken so you can exactly calibrate the distance in the RB to your ICO. For example at 22.83km the distance is exactly 22.83km at that point where you turn to the left slightly.
Then its plain sailing, full gas riding until 39.44km, where you will have to slow for many aardvark holes again. For us mortals we can ride as fast as we can see in front of us between these two tulips, being very careful at least 1km before we hit that 39.44km point in case our ICO distances are not properly calibrated. We will be slower still because of some guys dust in front of us, which if we are sensible, will slow us down. The top guys ride to the roadbook. That is they intimately trust their own abilities to navigate correctly, have the ICO correctly matching the RB and they ride FULL GAS even when they cant see the road in front of them. The only time they will slow down a lot is when they cannot see for the dust. Dust slows everyone down. People who ride fast in dust usually get badly hurt or crash their bikes out. Not worth it.
I'm guessing the top guys will be averaging 120km/hr in the first 40km, unless the road is very curvy between thorn trees, but I doubt it.
Looking at Andrew & Co's road books I can see the following that is will largely be a straightish, fast route to 77km with quite a few holes and other hazards which could result in some considerable nastiness for anyone who is not very cautious.
After 77km and to 151km it seems to be more of a straight forward navigational challenge. Here the fast guys will go wrong and lose lots of time. I see what look to be speed control zones as well. Penalty time for those not following these.
From 151km its only 41km to the finish, so I'm guessing the special will take about 2 hours to clear for the fast guys.
For the rest, the special could turn into a nightmare. Bear in mind that the racing starts AFTER a 450km liaison ride!
Topic: 2015 Amageza Rally - Official WD Thread (Read 169570 times)
