January 3 - Long days in Lisbon

Day two of my first Dakar.

Long.

Very. Long.

Alarm went off at 6.50. Showered and met a bunch of ASO guys at breakfast. Out of the door at 7.30 and in scrutineering by 8am.

Large car-park with at first a few bikes and cars, then more and more, with trucks added in too. Speed of vehicles passing through the technical check tents had all the hallmarks of glacial flow. No matter how hard you studied it and how long you left the tents to return to the Press Office, there seemed no noticable change.

However, eventually, it seems, everythign warmed up a little and things started to move. Part of today’s job was a decent number of support and service vehicles. These, by their nature, are not competition vehicles and have often not appeared either on the Dakar or any other event and so they often need more modification than competitor’s equipment.

All competing vehicles are fitted with GPS, IriTrack (GPS-based tracking system) and Sentinel (a system that allows cars/trucks to alert bikes to their presence behind them) by separate teams before they even get into the scrutineering sheds and such was the backlog, the Safety teams had everyone done long before the competitors were called into the tech tents.

There seemed to be about a 3-hour wait in the car park after your alloted time before you were called forward. Just as well it wasn’t in Wales! Warm and sunny weather made the wait less painful than it might have been. Luckily the forecast is set fair for the week.

Among today’s stars were former WRC greats Markku Alen (his Isuzu prototype pick-up bearing the legend “Maximum Attack since 1971” and double-World Champion Miki Biasion. Miki, like Markku, spent his glory years as part of the Fiat group (Markku with Fiat then Lancia, Miki in the GpA Deltas) and the amiable Italian is still in the fold. After competing in (Fiat-owned) Iveco trucks, he now finds himself peering down the telescope the other way, in a Panda 4x4! He shares (as ever) with Tiziano Siviero, the other team car (dubbed the Pandakar) driven by another rally legend, Bruno Saby.

But attracting the largest crowd was a Citroen.

No, the team that has dominated the WRC for the past 2 years has not returned to the desert, where it won with 205T16 and 405T16 models a generation ago (though don’t put it that way to Ari Vatanen – who won in them and is still here after all these years.) Rather, a small group of French loonies (who else?) have entered a 2CV.

Yes, a 2CV.

That’s right. One of those funny little cars with the fabric roof and the umbrella-handle gear lever.

After an attempt in 2004 failed around the halfway mark, the crew has spent 2 years building a new, purpose-made, space-frame-chassis 2CV. It’s a proper 4x4, as well. Sort of. It boasts an engine and transmisssion at either end!

Fully 300kg lighter than its steel-monocoque predecessor, the 2007 car now puts out a whopping (in 2CV terms – everything is relative) 30 bhp from EACH of its air-cooled twins. Capacity has been upped from 602cc to a massive 652cc but the 2CV ethos remains the focus and both (original) gearboxes feature toughened 2CV internals.

“We wanted to remain true to the concept of the 2CV,” grinned architect of the project, driver (and barking madman) Georges Marques. The team’s website – http://www.2cvclub.com - details every stage of the build. As a temple of devotion to insanity, it has few peers!

Makes Maidenhead to Monaco in 2CVs look relatively straightforward. So, that’s me and Hindhaugh entered for that, then!

And the best part of the whole deal is that the 2CV sailed through Tech and is in the event. Renault 4s on the RAC Rally and Safari have nothing on these guys! Expect news of them all through the event.

Apart from Froggy craziness, the day just went on and on.

And on.

Working late in the Press Office, I managed to cadge a lift home with some ASO folks at 8.30pm. Arrived back in the hotel at 9, then tagged onto another group going out to dinner at 9.30. Now 11.30 and heading to bed feeling dog-tired after doing largely not very much, other than wait for the day to eventually end.

Hopefully, more top names to meet tomorrow.

January 2 - The Leamington-Lisbon Rally

Jumped as the alarm went off at 6 this morning, rolling sleepily out of bed and into the shower.

Washed and dressed in all my Dakar gear, went to kiss Leah goodbye for three weeks, our longest seperation ever, barring three weeks in Dakar with John Hindhaugh, before we were even properly an item. (Leah and I, not Hindhaugh and I - we've been an item for YEARS!) On balance, probably NOT waking up Sam (4) to kiss him goodbye was the better choice, even though I told him I would kiss him before I went. No tears, and the taxi on time out in the cold and dark.

Birmingham airport shops yielded a neat little Canon Ixus, so hopefully I will be able to take LOADS of pics, to accompany these missives. None today, as the empty interior of an anonymous press office in a conference centre in Lisbon is hardly the stuff Man Ray would have made something out of.

Flight to Paree passed off without problem, as did the transfer to Lisbon flight. Fellow ASO bods easy to spot, a large clump of folks in grey jackets and/or teal sweatshirts, so I said hello to a couple of faces I know from Eurosport and Le Mans, while we waited to board.

Departure delayed by 30 mins (it was Paris, after all!) and bags took an hour (literally) to arrive after landing in Lisbon. Coach with the other guys to the Cultural Centre of Belem (title, not description), where the Press Office is located, then more hanging around. Dinner at our hotel is booked for 9pm, it's currently 8.15 and no sign of any of the car-driving members getting ready to go.

Encumbered by 100-litre bag of gubbins for Africa (bed, clothes, etc) as well as jumbo back-pack for Europe and office backpack, I have plenty to carry... ah, we're leaving right now, apparently...

That paragraph was written three hours ago, in which time, we've found our hotel in Lisbon (and no scrotty 2-star Euro-dump, thank you very much - this is a very swanky 4 - at the very least ane more likely 5 - star place, with very nice rooms) and mustered for dinner - also very nice.

Too many subjunctive clauses there.

Anyhoo, dinner was very nice and I got to more firmly fix some important names to faces. Most of the gist might have been partly lost on me but it was essentially a briefing for the 4 camera guys who'll be stationed in the bivouac (as opposed to the guys out in the helis or trucks on the course) dividing up the teams and national TV responsibilities.... "Franck, you're TV Poland, Kamaz and the Slovenians..." and so forth.

Food excellent (fish! yummy!) and everyone was relaxed and looking forward to it all. Including me. Now I'm here, most of my nerves have dissipated and I'm just doing what I normally do: i.e. trying not to f*ck it all up!

Unusually, this time, however, I am following people around like Mary's Little Lamb, in the hope that if I have at least one reasonably important teal sweatshirt in sight, I can't be too far away from where I'm supposed to be.

Not much of a plan, I'll admit... but all I have right now - and it did get me fed and watered!

Now fast approaching midnight (real English time as well, not your poncy CET) so I need to get to sleep. The plan is to be in the foyer at 0720, wheels up at 0730, for 0800 start to Verifs technics (Scrutineering to you and me.) However, I have been offered the easier option of coming in on a shuttle at maybe 9am.

Like the trooper I am, I think I will join the others at 7.30. It'll mean a much longer day but on Day 1 proper, I'd like to at least show willing...

So off to bed for me...

Sleep well boys and girls.

New Year's Day 2007

Final day at home, before setting off on my first Dakar.

The kitchen, which has spent the past few days awash in the many and various items deemed necessary for a three-week trip into the unknown, now looks like its former self, complete with the smell of chicken dippers and chips, as the kids eat their tea, in front of the TV.

Sam has spent much of the afternoon watching the 2006 event DVD - homework I should have been doing. Maybe I can call him when I need some information about last year and ask...

Morgan has been in her room with Megan - watching DVDs and dressing up in ever-more Spice Girls-style outfits.

After a cold trip to the park, partly to break up the packing, partly for some fresh air, we're back in the warmth and light as the English winter closes in... dark and cold.

Still largely unaware of really what to expect. Rationally, it's nothing work-wise that I can't handle and haven't done before... 26-minute live programmes are our stock-in-trade at Eurosport. And yet.

It's perhaps the unknown element that is worrying me most. Having never been on any event even remotely like the Dakar, but appreciating that it's likely to mean at least two weeks of living rough(-ish), as well as long days working, means I'm more keyed up that for any trip I can think of before.

I have been quite tetchy for the past few days, which isn't exactly ideal for our last days before a three-week seperation. Now I'm almost going, I think we're all a little emotional. A late night for New Year's Eve hasn't helped and Sam has already had a little "I don't want Daddy to go" sob.

Hopefully we'll all sleep well tonight and tomorrow I will be off by Taxi at about 0630 (always assuming I remember to book a cab now...) probably with a few tears.