Day 5, Dune race

Today was the shortest day of the rally. This day is different from the other days since it is more like an 80km MX race on sand dunes. There are 4 laps in total an you only need to pay attention to the navigation the first lap and then you can concentrate on doing the other laps as fast as possible. Again, it was really hot today and the sand was dry and soft but me and Carl found a very good tempo and made no mistakes. I do not know the results yet but I think we have advanced up to second place in the totals by now. I will have to confirm that in the evening.

Early morning at prestart. View of erg Chebi.

Since the day is fairly short this day also work as a rest day for the drivers and I have just changed oil and filter on the motor and on the gearbox. Air filters and skins are changed everyday. I have also changed back to the Desert rear tire from the MX tire I have been using during the two dune days. The front tire is also a Michelin Desert and I am using the same front tire the whole rally. The rear Desert tire is changed once during the rally.

The rest of the guys, and gal, in Team Rally Raid Sweden are at good spirit and people are less tired now than yesterday and the day before. The mood is usually directly related to how tired people are and how the results are so when people are talking and laughing it usually means they have had a good day.

My cold is making me feel lousy and really hope it would end but it would not surprise me if it does not go away until I get back to Sweden.

Tomorrow will be another long day with some demanding specials that will take us back up north to Missour. All we need to do now is to focus on keeping our position. There will not be much room for big time differences among the top riders for the rest of the rally unless someone makes a mistake and gets penalties.

Day 1, Nador - Missour

Today was the first day of the rally and it started with a 400km stage that took us from Nador at the coast up into the Atlas mountains to the city of Missour. The enduro path through a steep canyon (that I described a bit in the previous post) went well for me and my riding partner Carl Hagenblad. We got off early from the start at the port in Nador so we were among the first up the canyon so we didn't have any problems with other riders standing in the way. After the enduro path there were some technical navigation stages followed by a special that took just about under an hour.

The mechanics at work in Missour

The special was a mixture of somewhat tricky navigation and technical riding in a long riverbed. We made no mistakes and had a good flow through the special. The only problem was that there was a lot of cars that we caught up with and the dust makes it extremely difficult to try to pass them.

We were the first ones of the Swedes to reach the finish and the Berglund brothers showed up a short while after us so I don't know how it went for the others yet. The results of today will probably be posted later this evening. All in all it was a good first day and I'm happy with how the day went. The cold I felt yesterday doesn't seem to get any worse so hopefully that will not become a problem.

The upside of being among the first to reach the base camp is that the showers are hot and the toilets are working. :) Plus, you have a lot of time to get everything sorted for the next day. Right now its about 1830 and I'm all done for today so now I just have to focus on eating and talking to new and well known faces.

Day 0, scrutineering

This was the first day of the Tuareg rally and pretty much the whole day was spent at the port of almeria, in Spain. The day consisted of getting my paperwork done and getting the bike and myself through inspection. The paperwork mostly consist of stuff needed for customs as the routines for entering with a vehicle into Africa is not the fastest. The bike is checked for function; brakes, wheel bearings, brake lights, etc, and you have to show your complete safety kit before you are cleared and can load your bike back on the service truck.

Everything passed quite smoothly for me and most of the other Swedes so I was all done by lunch and could spend the rest of the day taping my roadbooks so by now I have taped all the roadbooks for all nine days. This is good since it means I will have more time to do other things during the rally.

A bad thing is that I got a sore throat and it feels like I am getting a cold and that precisely what I don't need right now. Doing a rally is hard enough without being sick. We will see how it feels tomorrow.

The stage tomorrow is quite a long one and the day starts with an enduro track in the mountains that can be somewhat challenging for some of the riders. The main purpose of the enduro track is to make the riders think again about wether they should stay in the Profi group or switch to the Amateur group.

I'm sitting in the wait room at the port right now and there is no WIFI here so we will see when I will be able to post this. Maybe tomorrow night in Missour but chances are small they will have internet there so it might not be until we are in Merzouga.

[Note] They had WIFI in Missour so I'm posting this on Day 1 of the race.

Day before scrutineering

Today was the day before the scrutineering and I spent a couple of hours doing some last minute checkups on my bike to make sure that nothing has been damaged during the transport down to Spain. Went over my riding gear and made sure I had all the neccessary stuff needed for the mandatory emergency kit. Each motorcycle driver needs to carry emergency rockets, a map of Morocco, a lighter, a compass, a rescue blanket, 4 litres of water, a cell phone, a set of tools for your bike and, of course, a helmet. If you happen to miss one of those items during any of the unannounced checks you will get heavy time penalties so you better have your gear sorted.

The riders checking their bikes one last time

Everything looked good on the bike and after a short shakedown ride to make sure everything worked properly and that nothing was coming off the bike I packed my gear and am now looking forward to relaxing the rest of the day. Björn Nygren, another rider in Team Rally Raid Sweden discovered some weird engine noices and is nervous about an imminent engine problem. Hope everything works out for him.

Tomorrow is the first day of the rally and the whole day will be spent in the port of Almeria with scrutineering. Getting all your paperwork done, getting the bike through inspections, and preparing everything before boarding the ferry that will take us over to Nador in Morocco. The ferry usually leaves at about 2300hrs so I'm expecting to spend at least 10-12 hours at the port. Fun times. Hopefully we will have a smooth crossing over to Africa and then the actual racing will start in Morocco on Monday morning.

The story behind Rally Raid Sweden

...or how to help yourself by helping others.

Even though its about 5 months left until the Tuareg Rally 2011, everybody in Team Rally Raid Sweden are well into their planning and preparations. We started Rally Raid Sweden in 2009 for the Tuareg rally 2010. Rally Raid Sweden can shortly be described as a concept for promoting rally raid events on motorcycles. It's non-profit and its main purpose is to help anyone interested in racing in rally raid events through collaboration and knowledge sharing.

Team Rally Raid Sweden 2010

A lot of motorcycle riders have a dream to be able to at least once in their life time take part of a desert race. Be it in Africa, Latin America, Australia or somewhere else. But unfortunately, because of the relatively large amount of work that has to be done before one even gets to the starting line, for many, the dream will just remain a dream. And for a first-time-wannabe-desert-racer, taking the step and actually submitting your entry form to your very first rally can be a daunting task. I had my dream for many years and it finally grew so strong that I took that leap of faith and entered my first ever desert race in 2008. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life.

So a year later, in 2009, my friend Carl Hagenblad and I thought that wouldn't it be really fun to do this whole rally thing again. We had done it once before so this time it would be a whole lot easier but how would we cut costs? If you live in Sweden you need to haul your bikes, gears, service trucks and what nots a whole lot of miles before you reach Africa. And hauling costs time and money. And if there was a way we could save some money we wanted to figure it out. The first rally, we drove our own service trucks down through Europe and did our own service during the rally. It worked, but driving 3000 km non-stop, and then racing 3000 km on a bike, and then driving 3000 km back home wears you out. So we figured that since the cost of transportation and bringing your own service truck is pretty much fixed. Get as many as you can to split that cost and each person will need to pay less. Basic economies of scale. And we'll also be able to bring some mechanics and split the cost for those too since you don't need one mechanic per bike anyway.

So how would we find all those people to come race with us. We knew there were tons of people with dreams but how do you make them take that first leap to realize their dreams? The solution was simple: offer them a complete package. Tell them you have a prepared plan to take everybody down to Africa and back at no extra cost. Make them part of a team and all the work that has to be done for the team, such as finding service trucks, hotel bookings, and all the other stuff, is evenly distributed among the members. So we all pitch in for the team and the benefits for the individual are lower costs, less work compared to doing it all by yourself, the advice and knowledge from those more experienced than yourself, and of course the pure fun of being part of a team rather than going solo. And having peers to help you out and support you along the way will make that leap of yours less daunting.

Team Rally Raid Sweden 2010

Said and done. Rally Raid Sweden was born and the team for 2010 became the biggest Swedish Rally Raid team in history with its 14 riders. Very cool. 13 riders made it to the finish line, the fourteenth had to quit the last day due to engine failure, three finished in the top 8 positions, and all four mechanics survived and made it back to Sweden. :) Pretty good track record in my opinion. Check out the final standings.

Retrospectively, the concept was so successful and so fun that we're doing it all over again for 2011. How big the team will be remains to be seen but there are so many great people involved that I'm sure it can't turn out to be anything but a success.