Guys and gals, apologies for the absence of reports over the last few days. A combination of lack of interweb access was the main reason, but read on and you’ll get the full picture.
The last you heard we were in La Serena waiting for a sprocket for Eoins bike to be shipped from Santiago. That morning I moved on ahead to Copiapo to catch up with the rally and find some accommodation, while Eoin stayed behind to collect his part and get it fitted.
The Copiapo bivouac was planted out in the middle of the Atacama desert. The size of the dunes surrounding it gave us some idea of what the riders were having to negotiate that day.
I met Phil, who as you know by now was knocked because of engine failure. He had tried his best to stay in the race and Martin spent the night fitting a new healthy engine, but the organisers wouldn’t let Phil start, so Martin had to refit the old engine so they could ship the bike home (and hold onto their last spare good engine). Fair play to the Desert Rose lads, they will stop at nothing to keep their guys in the race.
I saw Phil off in a taxi. He must have been gutted to be going home, but he was putting on a brave face.
To get even this far is an amazing achievement and he can be proud that he gave it his very best shot.
I spoke to our American friends, Jim, Scott and Bruce who were heading back to Santiago for their flight home.
From what I could gather, accommodation in Copiapo was hard to find, and I fancied a night in the bivouac anyway, so booked into Phils now empty tent. Well someone may as well make use of it!
One of the trucks badly damaged.
I sat with Martin, Bernie and Patsy as they waited for the riders to return.
They really have no idea of when their riders are due back, so spend their time catching up on lost sleep, putting up the pit, and doing a spot of washing.
Fresh air filters drying
Going for water to do the washing
A bit of metal putty will fix that!
The first rally bikes appeared and an hour or so later our riders stared to return one by one. Gary came in looking absolutely shattered. He had had a very tough day though the dunes, but was glad to be finished another stage. Mike, Ewan, and Craig came in, each having their own tales of a very tough stage.
Ewan recounting his tales of woe in the dunes.
Mike Shephard - always smiling
Gary returns
Craig and Bernie
We heard from the Frontrow GB crew that Stan Watts had rolled his KTM690 down one of the massive dune faces. He rolled a few times and then came to a stop watching his bike tumble another 20 times below him. The bike was in pretty bad shape but still started and got him home.
The next days riding was supposed to be through the same dunes again, followed by a liaison taking the riders across the Andes one more time to the next camp in Fiambala. The organisers in their wisdom cancelled the special for this stage. It is very tough on the riders and their support crew as changes are made every day to the route, or the entire day. The word around the camp is that the organisers underestimated the difficulty of the rally they had planned, and if they kept to the original route, their may not be anyone to welcome back to Buenos Aires! The most difficult part for the riders is coming in after busting a gut to make it through a particularly bad stage to find ASO had neutralised the last piece of the stage.
Stage 11 Copiapo to Fiambala
Todays stage was cancelled, and the riders would have to only ride across the Andes to the next Stage in Fiambala. This was to be the marathon stage where assistance was not allowed into the bivouac, and all riders would have to do any maintenance or repair work on their own bikes. As there was no special today, there would be no major maintenance due tonight, but with mousses in the tyres, they had to keep their speeds low on the road. After a fairly sleepless night in a tent in the bivouac (this place never sleeps, generators and work going on through the small hours) we were up at 4am to help Patsy and her crew pack up their truck. The assistance trucks had to leave by 6am.
The glamour of it all, drying gear in the morning sun.
Ewans lid
Eoin couldn’t find the key of his bike, and as the owner of our bike rental company was also in the bivouac, supporting an Argentinean rider on a BMW 450, he offered to get a new key shipped out, and put Eoins bike on the back of his truck. Eoin would now become part of the support truck for the 450. I was happy to plod on over the Andes at my leisure, but as the riders were under no pressure today, they planned to ride together and offered for me to tag along. As you can imagine, I jumped at the chance, and as I was to find out later, it was a good thing I was with them.
We took off in our little group, Gary, Ewan, Stan, Mike, Simon and myself. Me on my 650,. I can tell you I was grinning from ear to ear at the thought of riding with these Dakar legends! Going through certain populated areas the guys have to keep their speed right down as they are being tracked by GPS. They incur penalties and fines if they go even slightly over the limit. The guys entertain themselves riding along by taking photos and video of each other, and sharing snacks.
We started to climb up the winding roads over the Anders. What was a tarmac road turned into gravel and dust, and when it started to snake up through the mountains I had a fun time fighting the heavily loaded 650 through the bends. As we climbed higher and higher, the air grew thinner. The 650 is fuel injected so didn’t appear to suffer, but the guys noticed a definite lack of power in the carb engines with the thinner air. A lot of people started to get feelings of tiredness, not realising it was the altitude that was affecting them. We started to see riders along the road stopped up for a nap to recover. They didn’t realise that the only recovery they would get was by getting down the mountain on the other side. One rider we stopped for was completely out of it. Paris were calling him on the Iritrack to see if he was ok as he had not been moving.
High in the Andes
DRZ does the Dakar
We climbed to 4300m and spent quite a while up there topping out at over 4700m. We arrived at the Argentinean customs post. The riders had a fuel stop waiting for them, but there was no public station. I had 300k on the clock since refuelling in Copiapo. Stan was ready to unhook one of his fuel tanks to top me up, but Gary took the easier and slightly bolder option of riding my bike over to the race fuel tanker, a wink and a nudge to the guy serving the fuel, and he had me topped up ready to go again. Customs was easy for the riders, but I had to go through the formalities of getting my documents and passport checked so the guys waited up for me. Ewan was feeling the effects of the altitude and was falling asleep on his bike. He actually ran off the road on one bend as he dosed off. The guys started asking if I was ok, and although a bit tired, and feeling my heart was racing, I reckoned I would be ok. But within a few minutes I got quite light headed and confused. I must have looked bad as Gary and Stan brought me right over to the race ambulance. My blood pressure was checked and I was showing all the classic signs of altitude sickness. Very fast pulse, low oxygen in the blood, headache, feeling faint. They gave me some medication and put me on oxygen. I was also handed a bunch of coco leaves to chew on. Apparently the locals use them to ward off the effects of the thin air. After about 15 minutes on oxygen, I was feeling much better. The doc was not happy to let me ride down the mountain, as she said I would go downhill (pardon the pun!) fast once taken off the oxygen. But the other option of getting the guys to ferry me down and then come back for my bike were just too complicated so we decided to make a burst for it. It would take 90km to get down to 3000m where the effects would wear off. Stan rode in front of me and Gary stayed behind. If he saw me wobble at all he would get me to pull over right away. Taking regular deep breaths and chewing on my coco leaves, we soon dropped down and with the thicker air I started to feel much better. The lads were absolute stars to look after me. I don’t know what would have happened if I had been on my own coming over the pass.
As we came back down the mountain, the road surface started to improve (apart from some wee git decided to sprinkle pebbles on every corner, making it feel like riding over marbles) And as we got lower still, we passed through a gorge and some fantastic scenery until we were blasted by the hottest air that felt like riding into an oven. When we eventually arrived in Fiambala, we came across Simons bike parked under a tree. Kevin Saunders who runs the Globetbusters tours, and his gang were waiting with an impromptu reception of wine, grapes and sandwiches for us, which was a welcome surprise after our run over the hills. I rode with Gary to the bivouac and then went to find the hotel we were supposed to be booked into that night. Fiambala is just a small town in a very rural part of Argentina. The rally and its associated circus of followers obviously overwhelmed the town as we couldn’t find any accommodation (not even a tent pitch) anywhere. In the end I managed to blag my way into the bivouac by getting my photo taken with the local cops, and found Eoin and Gary inside. Eoins support truck was moving on to the next town, so I made camp in a corner of the bivouac, happy to be able to make use of the showers and eat in the food tent. After my fun in the mountains I jut needed a place to lay my head and sleep for the night.
How to get into the bivouac. A smile and a group photo with the local police always helps!
The next day I was up in the early hours and breakfasting with the guys before they set off on stage 12 of the rally. There was an air of nervous apprehension as, even though this special was to be only 250km long, there was some serious dunes to navigate, and most of the competitors felt that getting through this stage would be a ticket to Buenos Aires - barring any mishaps on the final two stages.
Setting off for the day
6am, cloudy sky
I packed up early and took off down the road to Tinogasta at the end of todays special. Someone’s prayers had been answered that morning, as from early morning, dark clouds and heavy rain, kept the heat out of the day until the afternoon. In Tinogasta I pulled in for fuel and met into a guy called Ricardo from Ecuador on a GS1150.
He was following the rally and knew where the end of the special was. We rode out together, him chatting to every cop along the way and getting us to the very end of the special test. When we were finally stopped by the authorities, and Ricardo’s charm could get us no further we walked out into the desert to take some shots of the riders coming in.
We met the two KTM factory guys, Marc Coma and Cyril Depres. I was slightly star struck as I got Cyril to sign my cap.
We heard news this morning also that Carlos Sainz had a big crash and both himself and his co-pilot had to be airlifted out.
Robbie Gordon’s Hummer
The special turned out to be, as Simon said when I met him at the end of the stage, “one of the hardest stages of any Dakar I’ve ever ridden!”. He made the comment that anyone who made it through that stage deserved a Dakar medal in itself. When I spotted Garys bike coming round the corner, I waved him down. He was with Craig Bounds, who had run out of fuel and had a big off, cracking his ribs in the process. I rode the 260km into La Rioja with the lads where, once again, we would make use of the spare tents in the bivouac.
Catching Z’s on the loing trip home
The only remaining Desert Rose rider not in by midnight was Ewan Buchan, who we knew had had issues with his clutch lever earlier in the day and had to return to the bivouac to find a spare. When he arrived in, Eoin brought him for his dinner and helped sort out his road book for the following day.
Stage 13 - La Rioja to Cordoba
At breakfast this morning we sat with Annie Seel from Sweden and Heinrick her partner. Annie had come off her bike the previous day and had torn ligaments in her shoulder. She was strapped up, and could barely lift her right arm, but was determined to continue the race regardless. She had also found yesterdays stage extremely difficult, and reckoned that the combination of altitude and the height of the dunes made it almost impossible to ride. This route was pre-run and planned during the South American winter. Now, in the heat of summer, the air in the sand is hot expands, making the dunes much softer and more difficult to gain traction in.
Our ride to Cordoba today turned out to be a 6 hour ride, through some lovely towns and countryside, with the now familiar support of streets lined with well wishers and rally fans. About 40km from Cordoba, tiredness from the previous few days was starting to catch up on me, so I pulled up by the side of a lake, dangled my feet in the water and slept for half an hour before riding the rest of the way into Cordoba. On the final stretch of motorway into this busy city, Marc Coma passed me on the road, so I knew the rest of our guys would not be far behind. Gary was particularly delighted to have finished that stage as it was the penultimate stage in 2005 that he was knocked out by one of the lead Mitsubishis. That night before heading back to the hotel, I wished all the guys good luck for their final run into Buenos Aires. Patsy outright refused to celebrate 4 out of 6 riders making it to the finish, being only too aware that anything can happen even on the last day.
Dinner in the Bivouac
Eoin had had an interesting day. After picking up his replacement bike key, he returned to find a note from Pablo the owner of rent bike, saying that the bike was unsafe to ride. Sure enough two bolts that hold the main fram together had sheered off and he had fun finding some local guys to help him fix it before he could move on to Cordoba. He arrived at the hotel after midnight, and had only 4 hours sleep before the alarm went off to get up for the final spin into Buenos Aires.
Stage 14 - Cordoba to Buenos Aires
Our early start was so that we could make the 720 km back to Buenos Aires in time to drop off our rental bikes, check into the hotel, and make it up to the finish before the guys arrived in. The run was non-eventful, with a few coffee and fuel stops. Even at 5am, there were crowds lining the motorway waving the rally along. We met up with Lucinda and Linley, Gary and Simons partners, and took a taxi up to the race finish. It was slightly hectic as we tried to figure out what route the bikes would come into the city, and also tried to outwit the traffic police who kept installing new barricades as the crowd encroached on the returning riders. Finally we spotted Garys green white and gold helmet coming down the main avenue towards the parc ferme. He had ridden in with Simon, Stan, Mike and Craig. We caught their attention, and it was an emotional moment as the two girls welcomed their men home.
Ewan Buchan, the first Scottish guy to finish the Dakar, arrived in and hobbled off his bike. He’d had a crash on the special and broken his ankle, proving that this race most definitely isn’t over until you cross the finish line.
Once the guys went through their formalities, it was a quick taxi ride back to the hotel for celebratory champagne and beer. As the afternoon turned into evening, the rest of the Desert Rose and Frontrow GB crew turned up, and the drinks flowed freely. It was great to see Don Hatton and his support team “Destination Dakar” from Canada, looking well after his bad crash on stage 4 .
Well done to all the Desert Rose Crew who had a fantastic result of getting 4 out of 6 of their riders to the finish of this very difficult Dakar. Patsy, Clive, Martin, and Bernie each put their heart and soul into doing their absolute best for their riders, staying up through the night working on the bikes, and driving all day to get to the end of the rally.
For anyone that is thinking of coming to South America, they could do worse that hire their bikes from Pablo at Rentabike.com.ar. He looked after us very well through our several “technical“ issues.
It really was an amazing trip for us, made all the better by knowing the guys riding, and being there for them through it all. We started out supporting our two Irish friends, and ended up following a whole troupe of riders from countries near and far. If I had ever held any vague notions of competing in this rally, they are well and truly wiped out as I witnessed the pain and suffering these guys go through to get to the finish of The most extreme endurance race there is. Today as Gary rode the last 2km to the finishers podiuim, he heard an Irish accent from the corwd “Jaysus lad, I’d say that was a bit tougher than Tinahealy”
I’ll leave you with a selection of photos from today as the guys got to strut their stuff on the podium and were presented with their finishers medals.
Ewan Buchan
Mike Shephard
Gary Ennis
Craig Bounds
Simon Pavey
Stan Watt
The Desert Rose Crew
What its all about!
Bike in container ready for shipping home to Le Havre
Some bikes not in quite as good shape at the end
The last you heard we were in La Serena waiting for a sprocket for Eoins bike to be shipped from Santiago. That morning I moved on ahead to Copiapo to catch up with the rally and find some accommodation, while Eoin stayed behind to collect his part and get it fitted.
The Copiapo bivouac was planted out in the middle of the Atacama desert. The size of the dunes surrounding it gave us some idea of what the riders were having to negotiate that day.
I met Phil, who as you know by now was knocked because of engine failure. He had tried his best to stay in the race and Martin spent the night fitting a new healthy engine, but the organisers wouldn’t let Phil start, so Martin had to refit the old engine so they could ship the bike home (and hold onto their last spare good engine). Fair play to the Desert Rose lads, they will stop at nothing to keep their guys in the race.
I saw Phil off in a taxi. He must have been gutted to be going home, but he was putting on a brave face.
To get even this far is an amazing achievement and he can be proud that he gave it his very best shot.
I spoke to our American friends, Jim, Scott and Bruce who were heading back to Santiago for their flight home.
From what I could gather, accommodation in Copiapo was hard to find, and I fancied a night in the bivouac anyway, so booked into Phils now empty tent. Well someone may as well make use of it!
One of the trucks badly damaged.
I sat with Martin, Bernie and Patsy as they waited for the riders to return.
They really have no idea of when their riders are due back, so spend their time catching up on lost sleep, putting up the pit, and doing a spot of washing.
Fresh air filters drying
Going for water to do the washing
A bit of metal putty will fix that!
The first rally bikes appeared and an hour or so later our riders stared to return one by one. Gary came in looking absolutely shattered. He had had a very tough day though the dunes, but was glad to be finished another stage. Mike, Ewan, and Craig came in, each having their own tales of a very tough stage.
Ewan recounting his tales of woe in the dunes.
Mike Shephard - always smiling
Gary returns
Craig and Bernie
We heard from the Frontrow GB crew that Stan Watts had rolled his KTM690 down one of the massive dune faces. He rolled a few times and then came to a stop watching his bike tumble another 20 times below him. The bike was in pretty bad shape but still started and got him home.
The next days riding was supposed to be through the same dunes again, followed by a liaison taking the riders across the Andes one more time to the next camp in Fiambala. The organisers in their wisdom cancelled the special for this stage. It is very tough on the riders and their support crew as changes are made every day to the route, or the entire day. The word around the camp is that the organisers underestimated the difficulty of the rally they had planned, and if they kept to the original route, their may not be anyone to welcome back to Buenos Aires! The most difficult part for the riders is coming in after busting a gut to make it through a particularly bad stage to find ASO had neutralised the last piece of the stage.
Stage 11 Copiapo to Fiambala
Todays stage was cancelled, and the riders would have to only ride across the Andes to the next Stage in Fiambala. This was to be the marathon stage where assistance was not allowed into the bivouac, and all riders would have to do any maintenance or repair work on their own bikes. As there was no special today, there would be no major maintenance due tonight, but with mousses in the tyres, they had to keep their speeds low on the road. After a fairly sleepless night in a tent in the bivouac (this place never sleeps, generators and work going on through the small hours) we were up at 4am to help Patsy and her crew pack up their truck. The assistance trucks had to leave by 6am.
The glamour of it all, drying gear in the morning sun.
Ewans lid
Eoin couldn’t find the key of his bike, and as the owner of our bike rental company was also in the bivouac, supporting an Argentinean rider on a BMW 450, he offered to get a new key shipped out, and put Eoins bike on the back of his truck. Eoin would now become part of the support truck for the 450. I was happy to plod on over the Andes at my leisure, but as the riders were under no pressure today, they planned to ride together and offered for me to tag along. As you can imagine, I jumped at the chance, and as I was to find out later, it was a good thing I was with them.
We took off in our little group, Gary, Ewan, Stan, Mike, Simon and myself. Me on my 650,. I can tell you I was grinning from ear to ear at the thought of riding with these Dakar legends! Going through certain populated areas the guys have to keep their speed right down as they are being tracked by GPS. They incur penalties and fines if they go even slightly over the limit. The guys entertain themselves riding along by taking photos and video of each other, and sharing snacks.
We started to climb up the winding roads over the Anders. What was a tarmac road turned into gravel and dust, and when it started to snake up through the mountains I had a fun time fighting the heavily loaded 650 through the bends. As we climbed higher and higher, the air grew thinner. The 650 is fuel injected so didn’t appear to suffer, but the guys noticed a definite lack of power in the carb engines with the thinner air. A lot of people started to get feelings of tiredness, not realising it was the altitude that was affecting them. We started to see riders along the road stopped up for a nap to recover. They didn’t realise that the only recovery they would get was by getting down the mountain on the other side. One rider we stopped for was completely out of it. Paris were calling him on the Iritrack to see if he was ok as he had not been moving.
High in the Andes
DRZ does the Dakar
We climbed to 4300m and spent quite a while up there topping out at over 4700m. We arrived at the Argentinean customs post. The riders had a fuel stop waiting for them, but there was no public station. I had 300k on the clock since refuelling in Copiapo. Stan was ready to unhook one of his fuel tanks to top me up, but Gary took the easier and slightly bolder option of riding my bike over to the race fuel tanker, a wink and a nudge to the guy serving the fuel, and he had me topped up ready to go again. Customs was easy for the riders, but I had to go through the formalities of getting my documents and passport checked so the guys waited up for me. Ewan was feeling the effects of the altitude and was falling asleep on his bike. He actually ran off the road on one bend as he dosed off. The guys started asking if I was ok, and although a bit tired, and feeling my heart was racing, I reckoned I would be ok. But within a few minutes I got quite light headed and confused. I must have looked bad as Gary and Stan brought me right over to the race ambulance. My blood pressure was checked and I was showing all the classic signs of altitude sickness. Very fast pulse, low oxygen in the blood, headache, feeling faint. They gave me some medication and put me on oxygen. I was also handed a bunch of coco leaves to chew on. Apparently the locals use them to ward off the effects of the thin air. After about 15 minutes on oxygen, I was feeling much better. The doc was not happy to let me ride down the mountain, as she said I would go downhill (pardon the pun!) fast once taken off the oxygen. But the other option of getting the guys to ferry me down and then come back for my bike were just too complicated so we decided to make a burst for it. It would take 90km to get down to 3000m where the effects would wear off. Stan rode in front of me and Gary stayed behind. If he saw me wobble at all he would get me to pull over right away. Taking regular deep breaths and chewing on my coco leaves, we soon dropped down and with the thicker air I started to feel much better. The lads were absolute stars to look after me. I don’t know what would have happened if I had been on my own coming over the pass.
As we came back down the mountain, the road surface started to improve (apart from some wee git decided to sprinkle pebbles on every corner, making it feel like riding over marbles) And as we got lower still, we passed through a gorge and some fantastic scenery until we were blasted by the hottest air that felt like riding into an oven. When we eventually arrived in Fiambala, we came across Simons bike parked under a tree. Kevin Saunders who runs the Globetbusters tours, and his gang were waiting with an impromptu reception of wine, grapes and sandwiches for us, which was a welcome surprise after our run over the hills. I rode with Gary to the bivouac and then went to find the hotel we were supposed to be booked into that night. Fiambala is just a small town in a very rural part of Argentina. The rally and its associated circus of followers obviously overwhelmed the town as we couldn’t find any accommodation (not even a tent pitch) anywhere. In the end I managed to blag my way into the bivouac by getting my photo taken with the local cops, and found Eoin and Gary inside. Eoins support truck was moving on to the next town, so I made camp in a corner of the bivouac, happy to be able to make use of the showers and eat in the food tent. After my fun in the mountains I jut needed a place to lay my head and sleep for the night.
How to get into the bivouac. A smile and a group photo with the local police always helps!
The next day I was up in the early hours and breakfasting with the guys before they set off on stage 12 of the rally. There was an air of nervous apprehension as, even though this special was to be only 250km long, there was some serious dunes to navigate, and most of the competitors felt that getting through this stage would be a ticket to Buenos Aires - barring any mishaps on the final two stages.
Setting off for the day
6am, cloudy sky
I packed up early and took off down the road to Tinogasta at the end of todays special. Someone’s prayers had been answered that morning, as from early morning, dark clouds and heavy rain, kept the heat out of the day until the afternoon. In Tinogasta I pulled in for fuel and met into a guy called Ricardo from Ecuador on a GS1150.
He was following the rally and knew where the end of the special was. We rode out together, him chatting to every cop along the way and getting us to the very end of the special test. When we were finally stopped by the authorities, and Ricardo’s charm could get us no further we walked out into the desert to take some shots of the riders coming in.
We met the two KTM factory guys, Marc Coma and Cyril Depres. I was slightly star struck as I got Cyril to sign my cap.
We heard news this morning also that Carlos Sainz had a big crash and both himself and his co-pilot had to be airlifted out.
Robbie Gordon’s Hummer
The special turned out to be, as Simon said when I met him at the end of the stage, “one of the hardest stages of any Dakar I’ve ever ridden!”. He made the comment that anyone who made it through that stage deserved a Dakar medal in itself. When I spotted Garys bike coming round the corner, I waved him down. He was with Craig Bounds, who had run out of fuel and had a big off, cracking his ribs in the process. I rode the 260km into La Rioja with the lads where, once again, we would make use of the spare tents in the bivouac.
Catching Z’s on the loing trip home
The only remaining Desert Rose rider not in by midnight was Ewan Buchan, who we knew had had issues with his clutch lever earlier in the day and had to return to the bivouac to find a spare. When he arrived in, Eoin brought him for his dinner and helped sort out his road book for the following day.
Stage 13 - La Rioja to Cordoba
At breakfast this morning we sat with Annie Seel from Sweden and Heinrick her partner. Annie had come off her bike the previous day and had torn ligaments in her shoulder. She was strapped up, and could barely lift her right arm, but was determined to continue the race regardless. She had also found yesterdays stage extremely difficult, and reckoned that the combination of altitude and the height of the dunes made it almost impossible to ride. This route was pre-run and planned during the South American winter. Now, in the heat of summer, the air in the sand is hot expands, making the dunes much softer and more difficult to gain traction in.
Our ride to Cordoba today turned out to be a 6 hour ride, through some lovely towns and countryside, with the now familiar support of streets lined with well wishers and rally fans. About 40km from Cordoba, tiredness from the previous few days was starting to catch up on me, so I pulled up by the side of a lake, dangled my feet in the water and slept for half an hour before riding the rest of the way into Cordoba. On the final stretch of motorway into this busy city, Marc Coma passed me on the road, so I knew the rest of our guys would not be far behind. Gary was particularly delighted to have finished that stage as it was the penultimate stage in 2005 that he was knocked out by one of the lead Mitsubishis. That night before heading back to the hotel, I wished all the guys good luck for their final run into Buenos Aires. Patsy outright refused to celebrate 4 out of 6 riders making it to the finish, being only too aware that anything can happen even on the last day.
Dinner in the Bivouac
Eoin had had an interesting day. After picking up his replacement bike key, he returned to find a note from Pablo the owner of rent bike, saying that the bike was unsafe to ride. Sure enough two bolts that hold the main fram together had sheered off and he had fun finding some local guys to help him fix it before he could move on to Cordoba. He arrived at the hotel after midnight, and had only 4 hours sleep before the alarm went off to get up for the final spin into Buenos Aires.
Stage 14 - Cordoba to Buenos Aires
Our early start was so that we could make the 720 km back to Buenos Aires in time to drop off our rental bikes, check into the hotel, and make it up to the finish before the guys arrived in. The run was non-eventful, with a few coffee and fuel stops. Even at 5am, there were crowds lining the motorway waving the rally along. We met up with Lucinda and Linley, Gary and Simons partners, and took a taxi up to the race finish. It was slightly hectic as we tried to figure out what route the bikes would come into the city, and also tried to outwit the traffic police who kept installing new barricades as the crowd encroached on the returning riders. Finally we spotted Garys green white and gold helmet coming down the main avenue towards the parc ferme. He had ridden in with Simon, Stan, Mike and Craig. We caught their attention, and it was an emotional moment as the two girls welcomed their men home.
Ewan Buchan, the first Scottish guy to finish the Dakar, arrived in and hobbled off his bike. He’d had a crash on the special and broken his ankle, proving that this race most definitely isn’t over until you cross the finish line.
Once the guys went through their formalities, it was a quick taxi ride back to the hotel for celebratory champagne and beer. As the afternoon turned into evening, the rest of the Desert Rose and Frontrow GB crew turned up, and the drinks flowed freely. It was great to see Don Hatton and his support team “Destination Dakar” from Canada, looking well after his bad crash on stage 4 .
Well done to all the Desert Rose Crew who had a fantastic result of getting 4 out of 6 of their riders to the finish of this very difficult Dakar. Patsy, Clive, Martin, and Bernie each put their heart and soul into doing their absolute best for their riders, staying up through the night working on the bikes, and driving all day to get to the end of the rally.
For anyone that is thinking of coming to South America, they could do worse that hire their bikes from Pablo at Rentabike.com.ar. He looked after us very well through our several “technical“ issues.
It really was an amazing trip for us, made all the better by knowing the guys riding, and being there for them through it all. We started out supporting our two Irish friends, and ended up following a whole troupe of riders from countries near and far. If I had ever held any vague notions of competing in this rally, they are well and truly wiped out as I witnessed the pain and suffering these guys go through to get to the finish of The most extreme endurance race there is. Today as Gary rode the last 2km to the finishers podiuim, he heard an Irish accent from the corwd “Jaysus lad, I’d say that was a bit tougher than Tinahealy”
I’ll leave you with a selection of photos from today as the guys got to strut their stuff on the podium and were presented with their finishers medals.
Ewan Buchan
Mike Shephard
Gary Ennis
Craig Bounds
Simon Pavey
Stan Watt
The Desert Rose Crew
What its all about!
Bike in container ready for shipping home to Le Havre
Some bikes not in quite as good shape at the end
all we need now is the movie, 
great achievement for you both 
