FROM the ASO via FR2 television. Translated badly from French.
Joey Evans take note about the WPC's - different to Morrocco.
Somebody point him to read these important notes from Marc Coma while they were setting up the route for the Dakar. 
Our recognition of the Dakar 2017 starts with a very long journey
13 hours night flight Paris-Buenos Aires, one hour from Taxi to change airport and from Ezeiza to Aeropark Newbery and another 2 hours flight to Salta. There we find Luis Alberto Gomez, called LAG, who will drive us throughout the week to come.
But the journey is not over: 2 hours drive to join Marc Coma (the Race Director) and Francisco Rometo (Logistics Manager) who are waiting for us in Cafayate.
A small snack, kind to taste, and it left again for 2 hours more, towards the south.20 hours after takeoff from Roissy we finally find the whole team recos. Our first Argentine night will happen under the stars.
The bivouac is being installed. We fall in the arms of these fellow travelers with whom we share exceptional moments for 9 years and we get to work. First pictures and interviews, assembly of the camp, preparation of a succulent asado ...
The team structure has changed since last year: Tiziano Siviero, a member of the Dakar organization since his arrival in South America, replaces Jean-Pierre Fontenay (who runs a Dakar Academy in China) at the wheel of The car that traces the road-book. At his side, Xavi Colomé, Catalan, like Marc Coma. Xavi is the former teammate of Pep Vila, truck driver emeritus of the Iveco stable. Siviero was twice world champion of the rallies in 88 and 89, to the right of Miki Biason. Two former co-pilots to write the road-book ... With the idea of complicating the life of the crews in terms of navigation.
The Way Points Control (WPC) ... The novelty of the Dakar 2017 and the first of our subjects of conversation, from the first evening.Observer last year, Marc Coma can now "dare" this year. And there is no better position than he (he won the Dakar 2015) to know how the factory stables make use of all the hightech technologies to pre-read and thus predict the Road Book delivered in the evening for The next day.
( ADV: A.S.O. NEW Regulation says now 300m validation at WPC )The Mapmen (cartographers hired by the top-teams) are able to draw hyper precisely the layout of the special. Obviously, surprise and adventure ... there was something wrong ...
To combat the phenomenon, Coma decided to degrade the GPS provided by the organization (the only ones allowed in vehicles). Until last year, the competitors "caught" waypoints in the following way: at 800m (sometimes less) from the compulsory crossing point an arrow appeared on the GPS screen to guide them to the PRECIS point and then one The second arrow indicated to them for a few moments the direction of the next waypoint.
All this is over! Coma: "Now with the Way Points Control, they will arrive in a virtual circle of 300m radius in the middle of which is the point. The trick is that as soon as they enter the circle, the GPS will emit a beep and validate the point, without indicating arrow! And more arrow to guide them on the next point either! You know you've passed close enough to the point to have it but nothing more. The GPS does not tell you if you are left or right of the point and it does not tell you which side is the next point "
In theory, the project is coherent. It will clearly complicate the task of the co-drivers who, I am sure, will come and complain in the ears of Coma every night at the bivouac. I am sure - also - that Coma will stand firm. "To find a certain form of adventure, uncertainty, this is the best solution for now," concludes the Clerk of the Course.
The practice starts tomorrow: we attack the special N ° 9. It's past midnight. In bed !Under the stars…
WITHOUT TRACK, WITH SAND
Published on 8 December 2016/0
First morning of recos of the Dakar 2017. Usual rudenesses. Wake up at 5:30 am, temperature outside tents: -2 degrees. The camp is quickly bent. The prospect of being warm in cars is factor ... motivating.
It was well done to patoter navigation at the vigil: the special n ° 9, in the heart of the stage Salta-Chilecito, will be made 90% off-piste. The first bikers to start will make the trace, and the task will not be easy. We evolve here permanently in a semi-desert landscape. Apart from a few rocky bars, there are few great visual cues; So there are few means of precisely locating oneself by looking at what is around it, since there is no point of visual attachment to guide oneself.
It is therefore imperative to follow the road-book and especially the headings indicated. Because this special is far from going straight from point A to point B. View on a map, it is even frankly tarabiscotée. We shall go in all directions to describe arabesques on this immense sandy plain. Further on, it is necessary to destroy small dunes covered with vegetation. With the naked eye, one does not perceive the change of ground but the shock absorbers take charge: we are well shaken, tufts of thorny in clumps of thorns. As we progress the sand becomes more and more soft and, of course, we end up staying there.O ur car is the first "tankée" but the others will have their turn. On this portion of 40km in all, the 4 cars of the little train recos were found sanded alternately (and sometimes two by two!) To the bottom of the doors.
Obviously, we rescued each other. But we had to play radios and even give the GPS point of the silting place because at 100m distance, we no longer see so much terrain is undulating. Suffice to say that in the race, the unhappy fell in some sneaky bowl runs the risk of remaining alone long, far from the gaze of others, in their bathtub of sand.
Tiziano Siviero and Xavi Colomé will even take the time to look for an alternative to the trace drawn in pre-recos, in the spring, in case this piece of special becomes too difficult to cross in case of heat. If the temperature exceeds 35 degrees in January, it will be much more difficult because the sand will be much less carrier ...
The last 20 km of the first part of the timed sector are cooler but we are far from finished. We find the tar for 100km of neutralization that will lead us to the start of the second part of the stage."There will be a lot of neutralizations," says Marc Coma, Race Director. It's no use riding on hyper-easy games. We're wasting miles. There, with the neutralization, the stage is 406km in all, and we have 306km of very selective grounds. It's much more "sporty" like that."
We get back to "sport" so after a good hour of resting tar. The control mode changes. One is in the bed of an endless river that one goes up to make practically turn and go down in the bed of a parallel river before ... to go up a third dried river. Not far from 130km to reach a dune sector. Ten kilometers of pure dunes, identical to those found in the Sahara.One even wonders what they are doing there, in the heart of the sierras, name given to the mountainous massifs that surround this patch of sand. "It's crazy the difference in lift of the sand depending on whether you pass 50 meters to the left or 50 meters to the right of the track, is surprised Patrick Juillet, the mechanic of the band, 15 years recos to the counter."
With Luis Alberto, we crossed this cord like a flower. The sand seemed to us to be particularly hard. Meanwhile, the other carriages sank into silting. And it can not be said that the pilots of the aforementioned discovered the sand ...
Even on the tops of these rounded dunes, the sand can be extremely soft. No way to find the ideal trajectory. These "moving" sand zones have exactly the same appearance as the supporting parts. This ten kilometers of dunes resembles a lottery. Coma: "They will get tired here by the first 360 kilometers. It is already difficult to see where the good passages are and with the loss of lucidity due to fatigue, it will be as hard for them as it has been for us.
A bit of jumping track to finish with this special N ° 9 and still a link of more than 100km to rally the bivouac of Chilecito. It will be a long day of racing.
Topic: Dakar 2017 (Read 117612 times)
