Sat 10 January 2015

Rest day Dakar 2015; a 100% score so far..

It all started in Buenos Aires, Argentina this year. On the 31st of December our three riders, Mart Meeru (EST), Jeroen van Daele (NED) and Erik Klomp (NED) arrived prepared and fit on Ezeiza airport. After a year of preparation and training it’s finally ‘Dakar time’. Mart is the only one with experience riding the Dakar, he participated and finished Dakar in 2014. Jeroen and Erik are ‘Dakar rookies’, but have a lot of experience riding other rallies. Their goals are plain and simple; ‘finishing Dakar 2015’.

MART MEERU

After we passed our administrative and technical checks at the Tecnópolis Exhibition Center on the 3rd of January, the Dakar started on the 4th with 838 km in total, heading for Villa Carlos Paz.
 
The special to San Juan the next day was very long and tough. High temperatures in combination with the dunes at the end of the special made this ‘one of the stages of 2015’, which will be ‘remembered’. 14 Motorcycle competitors didn’t make it to the finish line, mostly due to dehydration.

JEROEN VAN DAELE

Most riders who finished the second stage needed the 3rd stage to ‘recover’. On day 4 the Dakar caravan left Argentina, heading for Copiapo in Chile. A very early start and a climb to a height of 4,800 meters took the competitors to the border crossing at Paso San Francisco. After a freezing road section of 594 km over the Andes mountains, the special of 315 km was a ‘pleasant’ surprise, ending with an open and sandy route and giant dunes. After 909 km in total (the longest day in Dakar this year) they reached the bivouac in Copiapo.

ERIK KLOMP

And as usual, you have to ‘earn’ the rest day. After a lot of fesh fesh and rocks during stage 6 yesterday, Mart, Jeroen and Erik arrived in Iquique. Mart early in the afternoon, Jeroen early in the evening and Erik just before dark.
 
The A.S.O. organised a really tough first week for all competitors. To reach the rest day, you and your bike needed to be in perfect shape. Reaching Iquique with so many riders out of the game, felt like a small victory. But of course we’re only halfway now, with still 7 stages to go.

After their well deserved rest day today, the motorcycle competitors will leave for their first marathon stage to Uyuni in Bolivia tomorrow.
 
At this moment we only have two more things to say to our riders:

1)    Well done so far!
2)    Please continue like this until the podium in Buenos Aires…

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