Rally report

A FANTASTIC RALLY THROUGH ARGENTINA AND CHILE
- I finished, 22nd (1st woman) despite engine problems

So again I finished a World Cup rally, and again it was spiced with drama before finally getting to the finish line.
And if there wasn’t an ”if”, I could maybe have been top 20, but there always seem to occur some troubles in long races. That’s the beauty, challenge and thrill in Cross Country Rallies - to master the ifs and buts... '

Team Honda Chile:
Chaleco (superstar), Fenya (mechanic), Annie, Temo (mechanic), Luis (my "team boss")

Anyway thanks to my Chilean super-friend Luis ”Lucho” Eguiguren (who I met a few days during the Dakar 2002) invited me to ride his old Honda XR400 (the only in the race) and also he took care of everything from transports to hotels, sponsored by his company Finanzas & Negocios.
Lucho, who knows ”everybody” worth knowing in the South American Rally world, set me up with Andres de Carcer of Volvo Chile as a sponsor, which was a very happy surprize. He also arranged for me to join superstar Fransico ”Chaleco” Lopéz (www.chalecolopez.cl) in Team Honda Chile. So I was now backed up wit a 4x4 truck sponsored by Lucho’s partner at Finanzas & Negocios, and Honda-mechanics Temo and Fenya, who worked so hard to take us to the finsih. Also Luchos brother Thomas kindly lent me his engine when I was in need for an engine change.
All in all I’ve never been this backed up before, felt almost like a real factory rider.
So it feels good to have finished to repay some of all the effort others have made for me. I actually finished best Honda. The only sad thing for the Team was that Chaleco had to withdraw on day 6 due to engine problems.

But for a while I thought I wouldn’t make it…
The poor XR400 was a bit old and weak, but we made the most of it.

The first day I started having mechanical problems. The bike rattled early on and I stopped several times to check what was lose. Found nothing essential coming off so I continued, but slowed down not to risk anything, and finsihed 25th. At the finsih of the stage we found the chain guides were broken and the chain was chewing on the gearshifter and frame, but Temo fixed it till next day.
Chaleco made a splendid first day, starting from 42nd position he med the fast trach upp to 6th, including blasting through a closed gate leaving barbed wire marks on his face and a broken roadbook and front of the bike - he was flying!

Second stage I was determined to make up some places, but the first bit was very narrow sandy tracks with whoops and fesh fesh, very heavy for a bike with little power. I found a nice rythm at first but then hit som deeper whoops and got a huge kicker when I could not keep the front wheel light. Somehow I summersaulted and got my left arm and hand in between the rear wheel and swingarm – I was stuck. In pain I waited for a few riders to catch up and they lifted the bike and twisted my hand out. I for sure thought the hand was broken or at least some fingers. But I grabbed the handlebar of the bike and decided the hand was good enough to ride, though painful. Also the bike felt very slow and no power. It was a long day to the finish, and the hand swelled up. In the evening it looked like a boxing glove and I couldn’t see the knuckles anymore. I showed it to all the doctors and they squeezed and pulled, and hoped nothing was broken. Jutta Kleinschmidt of the VW Team asked their medic Bettina also to check it, and she put som gel and taped it so I could ride the next day – thanx it worked.

Photo: Javier Leali

But the third day my biggest worry was the lack of power in the bike. So I wasn’t too surprised when it lost the power a few times the first half of the stage, and finally there was no compression and the engine died. What a dreadful feeling – worse than crashing. I sat by the side of the track until the next rider passe me. I asked him to tell Lucho to come for me.
I took a few hours for him to come, and he was already calling his brother Thomas to get me his engine. In Santiago the Honda-mechanics made an amazingly fast engine change, and I was ready just in time to start for the super special – a short motocross special at Movicenter stadium with more than 10000 screaming spectators. So I was back in the race – thanks everyone who made this fantastic effort!
And Chaleco gave the screaming crowd a show round the dirt like a true superstar!

Photo: Javier Leali

Stage 4 was very fun with winding narrow tracks zig-zagging in the moutain. I started last, 36th I think, and was stuck behind a dusting quad for a while, since passing was dangerous when drops lured behind every corner. The bike worked fine, and since it was a twisty stage, the lack of top speed and power was easily compensated. Patiently I started moving up the field, and despite two navigation difficulties I raced to finish 19th. I had a BIG smile when arriving to the finish and I truly enjoyed every bit of the stage, despite the hard work for my poor swollen hand. Honda had a historic stage victory today, when Chaleco used every bit of skill to finish first – so the team had a very good day in total. I was very happy for Chaleco, since this is his first ever rally, and he is doing so well.

The 5th stage was my favourite. It was a long ride on every different terrain you can imagine but the navigation was extremely difficult because the roadbook was very bad so you had to sometimes just go by waypoints – and risk going on the wrong track. So skill in navigation and judging when to use roadbook or waypoints made the whole difference.
The first bit was fast sandy tracks in vegetation, and checkpoint 1 was difficult to find - some riders missed. Then there was a road split, and I took the correct and found a rocky track heading down to the beach. Riding along the coast on narrow technical rocky tracks was beautiful, and I cought some riders, and was passed by way faster guys that had been lost. Half way we had a fuel stop, and I was still holding my position in the field. After the stop we raced full flat out on the beach where the waves wiped out the tracks in front of me – FANTASTIC. The helicopter filmed me, and I had to wave to the camera. Suddenly a river appeared cutting the beach in front of me… and I looked where to cross it. I didn’t want to waste too much time, so I just plunged in, and the water reached all the way up to the seat. The bike pulled slowly through and I was afraid not to get across, but we made it.

Photo: Javier Leali

Then I raced on and just enjoyed all the beautiful scenery. Afte a while I got company by Brazilian rider Ricardo Medeiros and Chilean friend Jaime Prohens (who is a very fast rider!). They had passed me before a few times, but somehow always got lost. So I found myself ”guiding” just like on one of Moto Aventures tours. In some places there were different options of tracks, so I lost them again.
In the afternoon we turned inland and around the backside of a mountain, also very difficult to find the right way. At the second fuel I felt I was still doing well, and looked forward to the last section of dune riding. But I had some problems because late afternoon the sand is extremely soft, and there was a lot of vegetation in the dunes making it difficult to find ”virgin” lines and a good riding speed. The little XR400 isn’t very strong, so sometimes it just wouldn't pull forward in the soft sand. But I zig-zagged, stalled the bike a few times, found new lines and in the end got really into the flow.

Photo: Javier Leali

Just before the finish there were som really big dune ridges we had to cross. I knew the XR400 wouldn’t have enough power to follow the tracks where the others had gone, so I made some real off pist navigation and found other routes across. I enjoyed my freeriding! At the finish I was 17th, and I was happy with my day. But it feels a bit annoying to know that if I hadn't had the engine problems, I would have been 11th over all... but that is "ifs" and "buts".
Chaleco had some engine problems and also missed a checkpoint, so his day wasn’t too good.

Day 6 was supposed to start with dunes, which I looked forward to, but due to fog the first 60 kms were cancelled – and I was very disappointed. So instead we took off from checkpoint 1 on a fast stretch to some dunes. I was so inspired from yesterday, that when we hit the dunes I passed the 3 riders in front of me, and managed to keep in front of 2 of them all the way to chekpoint 2 – even if it mostly was flat out racing the whole time. Meanwhile I had passed Chaleco, who’s engine had stopped - he was out. From here on it was more wide full speed tracks, perfect for all the bigger faster bikes, and I felt really miserable when bike after bike passed me on the fast stretches. Reaching the fuel stop I was really pissed off… And then I made the big mistake that blew my whole day. I forgot to put in the second roadbook roll, since I somehow mentally thought we wouldnt use it because also the last bit of the stage was cancelled. So I took off, trying to hang on to the faster guys in front, but found myself going up the wrong canyon in the mountains when I couldn’t see their dust. When I realized this, and how much time I lost, I was ready to kill my self. This lapsus I made because I was not focusing on doing my race, I was instead pissed off because I had a slow bike – and this cost me much more than the lack of speed. So never let someting get you off focus…

When I got back on track I rode like furious and actually made up some time and places on the fast but very bad and rocky piste, despite having to stop and fix the roadbook holder that was coming loose a few times. So ridingwise I was very happy, but my ”f-ck up” with the roadbook I wont be too proud of. The total length of the stage with liasion was more than 700 km, so in the evening when I reached the bivouac I could almost laugh about it…

The 7th and last day was another full speed pretty straight forward day through the mountain desert. The difficulties were not navigation, but all the dried riverbeds and streams that cut the piste – you need to be very careful when going full speed not to get caught out by one of them. Also there were lots of fesh-fesh (bull dust/silt) and rocks. I was all warmed up from yesterday, so I stuck the bike in 5th gear and just pulled the throttle wide open. Soon I started passing riders and I felt even more inspired. The problem was the roadbook coming loose from the vibrations and jumping the riverbanks, and I had to stop at least 5 times to fix with zip-ties – that also broke. In the end the roadbook hanged like the tongue of a panting dog, flapping up and down in the jumps and rocky tracks. Sometimes I was riding holding the roadbook with one hand . When I reached the finish I wondered where all the others were , but there weren’t any more bikes arrived – I had finished 14th today!!
Overall I finished 22nd, and 1st woman.
Thanks to my friends that helped me to the finish line!

The prize giving in San Pedro de Atacama was just a big fiesta. Crossing the podium in front of all the excited audience, throwing my gloves to them etc. I received a huge glass trophy and a 5 kg Toblerone chocolate (that I gave to Temo for all his work..). In the evening we had a big salsa party on the stage, the latino spirit grabbed everyone! Absolutely the best ”After Rally Party” I’ve ever been to!

So this rally has been more than just a race success. It has also given me fantastic friends, Lucho, Thomas, Temo, Chaleco, Jaime, Andres, Homero, Fenya, Eric and all the other teams and racers and organisation staff etc. There are just so many, and I can’t wait to see U all again.

THANKS to all FANTASTIC people I’ve met:
- Luis Eguiguren, my super friend, for everything, bike, backup, organisation, support etc. Invaluable!
- Temo (my mechanic) & Fenya, Honda’s mechanics that had a rough week fixing our bikes
- Thomas Eguiguren, for letting me use your spare engine
- Chaleco Lopéz, my Honda team mate, fantastic rider & friend!
- Andres de Carcer, of Volvo Chile who sponsored me, friend, also drove in the rally
- Jaime Prohens, fantastic rider & friend, thanks for foam grips. I’ll bring new ones for you next year.
- Eric Nevels, of the Chilean Race organisation, the man that did the job, always there with a postive attitude
- Bettina, Team VW medic, thanks for taping my hand so I could ride (thanks Jutta Kleinschmidt for lending her)
- all the race officials that have creating a fantastic spirit, been helpul, happy and cheered me on
- all the teams and participants for joining the fantastic spirit, hope to see U soon

BIG THANKS to my SPONSORS:
FINANZAS & NEGOCIOS Corredores de Bolsa - CHILE (www.fyn.cl)
VOLVO CHILE
HONDA CHILE
Touringbutiken