Euromilhoes Dakar 2007 Portraits of the Day
Sunday January 21, 2007
Arjan Brouwer:
"The Dakar is my life"
When Arjan Bower says the Dakar is his life he isn't exaggerating. In 1986
the entered the mythical race for the first time and very nearly didn't come
home. "One day I gave my backpack to a truck driver to take to the beginning
of the special but he never turned up and so I started without my distress
beacon. There was a huge sand storm and I went off the road book." It took
four days to find the Dutchman and it wasn't a moment too soon. "At first I
thought 'they will be here any moment', but as the days went by I became
less sure. I prayed to God and prepared to die. But God answered my prayers
and sent me a helicopter."
Now with the Iritrack system, sat phones and GPS such a thing couldn't
happen, but despite this Arjan is nostalgic for the 'good old days'. "For
sure everything is better now and the organisation is fantastic, but I liked
the adventure aspect of the early Dakars." Arjan also misses riding the
Dakar on a motorcycle. "I raced a bike here a total of seven times but a
while ago I had to have a hip replacement operation which put an end to my
motorcycle racing." His solution -- come back with a truck. "I am surprised
how much fun it is. The engine puts out 1000 bhp and it has independent
suspension. Sometimes it is like riding a moto-x bike."
Before the celebrations on the Lac Rose podium, Arjan is pleased with how
his truck debut has gone, but is even happier to have reached Dakar and see
his wife and her family, who live in the Senegalese capital. "The big thing
I learnt from my four days in the desert is that life is a precious gift and
should be enjoyed. The people of Black Africa have the same philosophy and
ever since my experience I have felt a special affinity with them. Two years
ago I met my wife in Dakar and we got married and are very happy together,
so you see the Dakar really is my life."
Paul Belmondo:
"I want to do even better."
He is one of the faithful ones. His silhouette is both discrete and very
present and is almost part of the overall landscape of the bivouac. Paul
Belmondo is used to the Dakar. He is however much less well-known in Dakar
proper as this year is only the second time he reaches Dakar in 10
participations. For the former Formula 1 driver, this 2007 edition has a
special taste: "it's true that I've only seen Senegal once in 2001 as the
last time I finished the rally the finishing line was in Sharm-el-Sheikh.
But my track record is not that bad: on the last two rallies, there was
nothing I could do to avoid withdrawing. I was actually quite lucky to get
out of it that well. This year, I had much less trouble, so it's rather
logical I am now reaching the finish."
If he was able to avoid the trickiest problems, the second challenge of
Belmondo was bothered by unfortunate race incidents: "The aim was also to
get victory in T2. Up to Atar, I was in the game, ranking 26th in the
overall rankings, and more importantly with the other first five more than
30 minutes behind. But when crossing dunes between Atar and Tichit, I got
stuck between a rock and the bottom of a dune. This was an absurd situation
but it cost me 3h50, the time it took for the assistance truck to arrive and
get us out."
But Paul being a fighter, he forgot about his half-disappointment and is now
thinking about the future. Next to his season in Le Mans Series, he intends
to invest a bit more in the rally raid world championship to be starting the
next Dakar with higher stakes and goals: "I would like to participate in at
least two races and develop a project to show up with a competitive car in
another category, maybe a buggy. This Dakar made me want to do better and
also gave me some arguments to go get sponsors, because with my Dakars only
lasting 4-5 days, it was hard to be convincing in the past!"
Ludivine Puy:
"I took it easy this year."
A Dakar to suffer; a Dakar to have regrets. In 2005 she finished 97th after
a lot of trouble. Last year, she withdrew two days before the end after a
single mistake when she fell to avoid a kid on the road to Tambacounda. This
year, her third attempt, is almost right. Almost because in Ludivine Puy's
values, it's accomplishment that matters. The young biker from the north of
France works on the principle of all or nothing. And in this 2006 Dakar she
is very demanding. Seated at a white table in front of her tent, she is
peacefully reviewing the 2006 edition in which she is the winner of the
female biker competition. She follows Patricia Watson-Miller with this title
but it's not what matters. "Over the last few days, I was stressed out. Last
year, Tambacounda was the stage when I fell and broke my pelvis."
Don't look any further for a reason why she is so modest; Ludivine is
focused on herself but very open to the Dakar and its atmosphere. This is a
far-fetched attitude but she's feeling good and certainly not obsessed by
competing. It's after all just a plus if she's doing well in the race. In
her words, it sounds like: "I took it easy this year. I did not push myself
to the limit. I don't feel tired." Ludivine hates cheap modesty; she's like
that. A bit easy-going and most certainly still far away from her true
potential.
"The Dakar is the only rally raid I do each year. So I want it to be good.
I'd want the pleasure of participating to be total." As for sporting
demands, that's another issue. She still refuses to make plans for the next
Dakars and just mentions that she would like to do the next Morocco Rally:
"in order to make progress on rocky trails" and the Dubai Rally "To make
progress in the dunes." That could very well look like a career plan: being
perfect for the rally raid in January. But again, Ludivine, who's 24, is not
making any plans. Her thing is now to successfully finish her year's study
with the French national police next August and become part of their
motorized unit. Actually, Ludivine wants to do the Dakar in her own way and
at her own pace. This may be the only way of staying in the race for many
more raids to go.
Alioune Sarr:
"The guys helped out for nothing."
The scene is heart-breaking: Alioune Sarr, alone in the darkness of the
bivouac in Tambacounda, removing the dust from his doomed bike. For him, the
Dakar finished with the first stage in Senegal, the day before what had to
be a triumphant arrival back home in Dakar. "I'm angry and so sad... if it had
happened in Mauritania like last year or even in Portugal, I would have
accepted it, but there is only one day left to Dakar."
One after the other, the privateers with no assistance, the very supportive
family of unassisted bikers, came to support him in his despair: the
Tilliette father and daughter, Mauritania's Soueid, Yannick Guyomarc'h... That
same family that had allowed him to start stage 13 between Kayes and
Tambacounda. The night before, there were 15 of them working on his machine.
15 including the man in charge of assistance with Yamaha, woken up in the
middle of the night to dismantle and reassemble the engine and repair the
damn oil leak. Work went on till the early morning hours allowing the man
nicknamed 'Lune' (moon in French) to start the next day. "People helped out
for nothing."
Indeed, trouble started in the first connection: "I had to disassemble the
bike five times before starting again then I had a derogation to start the
special stage despite my delay." Everything was going well up to CP1 (km
149), the biker even caught up on two of his competitors. "I stopped to get
gas and was unable to start again. Dead battery. I had to kick for three
hours. I was exhausted..."
The rest of the story is just crazy. An off-race van offered to tow him. He
was headed for Tamba but on a leash. After a few km, Alioune had the
misfortune of hitting a tree. The reslt was a broken steering. So he decided
-- which is not overly by the book -- to load his bike in the van. Based on
the principle of "what you can't see, you can't judge", the biker kept going
incognito. But the race marshals soon realized due to the Iritrack system
that bike 153 was indeed moving but on its flank... damn technology.
Obviously, Sarr was excluded from the race. End of story... "I've had problems
end to end. I haven't slept in 5 days... all of my friends are waiting for me
at Lac Rose", explains the 26-year old with tears in his eyes.
Alioune must respect the decision of the marshals. Eventually his tears were
be replaced by a wide smile at the sight of his friend Anne-Charlotte
Tilliette getting the fair-play award at the last briefing of the Dakar... A
smile that never came off Lune's face despite all his misfortunes in the
rally.
-credit: dakar.com
