Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Play i ng catch up in Africa: Gaston and the gigantic BMW, outside a mud-walled city in the desert, com ing f rom too-far beh ind. profile: The incredible 5 ga Of~ By Roger Willis Upon arriving in Dakar, the capital city of Sen egal, on January 22, a 37-year-old Belgian dwarf with bristles sprouting out of his top li p p roclaim ed: " It's the most beautiful day of m y life..." Gaston Rahi er had, agains t all odds, won the Paris-Dakar Ra lly for th e seco nd time. Fifteen days previousl y, as th e BMW team effort cru m bled arou n d his ears a nd hi s own time pena lir ies mounted tow ards terminal proportions, he'd di sconsol at el y mumbl ed : " Here, I th in k every th ing is lost." The Fren ch , never noted for magnanimity in eithe r victory or defeat , blam ed Ra h ier's winning in 1984 on lu ck. In '85, they had no suc h excuse, In last year's rally, Fren ch pique was aroused because " Gasto n ner" - th e derisive " Baby Gaston " la bel they'd g iven h im - decisively trou nced his BMW tea m - m at e and a ll -round Fr en ch su pe rsta r, Hubert Auriol. To twi st th e knife, Auriol had di scovered that, despite winn ing th e rall y tw ice for BMW. in 1.9~0 a nd 1983. he'd been on a vas tly inferior fina ncia l dea l to Rah ier. With factory an d o the r sponsors' bon uses, the lillie Belgian was reputed to have co llec ted a "drink " wo rt h mor e th an SI00.000. Aur io l was not a happy man a n d Galli c pride led him into co m p rehe nsively burn ing hi s boots by dem anding a sim ila r deal for hi s 1985 effort. BMW not o n ly di spen sed with his servi ces. but al so moved th e wh ol e rall y team or ganization ba ck to th e facto ry in Germany. Expatriate German ISDE veteran H erbie Schek, wh o had designed an d built a ll th e box erba sed desert bi kes for BMW France. was a lso left out in the co ld. and entered th e '85 Pari s-Dakar on a KTM. Against such a n acrimon io us backgrou nd , Rani er h eaded towards this vear's bash . Like rnanv desert racers. hi s ped igree . was excell ent, pa rricu- larl y th e three sets of 125cc motocross World Championships nailed up over h is mantlepiece from way back in 1975, 1976 a nd 1977. His co n versio n fro m bein g a n over- the- h ill MX hero to rid ing over h ill s o f sand right across Africa ha d been punctuat ed by a de mons tra tio n o f ex traord in ary to ug h ness a nd resil ience wh en faced wit h horrific in jury. One o f Gaston 's wrists was a lmos t com p letely severed in 1982. The hand was o n ly saved by being sewn back on a n d th en surgica lly linked to hi s a bdo men. to mainta in sufficient blood sup p ly, for severa l weeks. He had proved, too . th at hi s diminutive stature wasn 't a ny hindrance to riding th e massive BMW desert battleax es WFO... The new factory co nt ro lled team unveil ed its bik es in Marlboro colors. having lost th e previous year's main sponsor sh ip from Penthouse. Just to maintain some mammary interest th o ugh . a su bs id ia ry dea l got th e Playboy logo onto the paint job. Looki ng for some practice. Rah ier took his bi ke 10 Egypt for the R ot h mans Pharoahs Rall y a nd promptly took it to first p lace. G erman mot ocross a nd enduro rider Edd y Hau ga ined h is sp u rs in th e BMW tea m by co m ing seco nd. The pair a lso crossed th e Atl anti c to sha re a ride in the Baja 1000. fin ishing fifth overa ll . In th e freezin g grey Parisian dawn o n New Year 's Dav , G aston Rahier set o u t as th e clea r favorit e to tak e hi s BMW to Dakar a head o f everyo ne else. Almost immediately. hi s lu ck seemed to have ru n o u t... That first day o f th e Paris-D ak ar was a 620-m ile blast do wn su rfaced roa ds th rough France to th e Mediterra nean port o f Sere, for em barka tio n to Algi ers. The o n ly dangers were boredom a nd th e in ten se co ld. Rahier liven ed things up a bit for a few o f th e 500,000 specta to rs lining th e route by a ttem p ting to h ead -butt a passing motorist n ear Brive, While he escape d without personal injury. h is bik e had become di stinctl y second- ha nd. Three da ys lat er. a fter th e sea crossi n g an d a gentle, non-competitive. 370-mi le rid e so u th from th e Alg eri an coastline to Ouargla , he di scovered just how seriously second-hand it actually was ... T he ra lly began in earnest with a 190-m ile sp ecia l test to EI Galea. The ent ire BMW master plan. based on a team o f three riders su p port ed by 13 mechanics - eq u ip ped with three P uch 280G E 4-\\' 0 truck-eues and a MAN heavywe ig ht number. loaded with spa res a nd chi lled tin n ies - not 10 ment ion th e ma nager. ex tra spannerman a nd ph ysiotherapist stagehopping in a support aircraft. began to disintegrate. The frame o f Ra h ier' s bike was bent and he spe nt much of th e first day riding it sideways, doing cra b im persona tio ns a nd getting penalized on time. Worse still, the third team member. Ra ym ond Loizeaux, scu p pered his veteran Paris-Dakar reputation by serio us ly lunching self and bik e. He had to retire and Hau was also down on time. Ra h ier 's position wou ld have been even further down the field if a French BM W -mounted pri vat eer ca ll ed Pesch eur hadn 't su rre n dered hi s own back wheel to replace G a ston's item, smas hed in the rocky wadis. This generosity was returned by the BMW entourage. who gave virtua l wo rks support to Pescheu r for th e rest o f the ra lly. Another three days la ter, as the ra lly reached th e last tow n in Sou the rn Algeria , Tarna nrasset, the situation hadn 't improved. During th e last dangerous special test, looping up into th e Haggar mountains from In Amguel to T am. Edd y Hau cras hed so heavil y that his retirem ent was in evitable. As the mechanics worked fever ishly to stra igh ten out Gaston's bik e a t every o vern ig h t stop a nd fuel chec k. th e lo neliness o f being a sa le su rvivo r set in . H e came close to g iving up, but didn 't . Self-satisfied pundi ts. seeing Rahier over 30 places down the field a nd some two hours behind th e lead bik e a t EI Gal ea . had too speed ily written him o ff as a no-hoper, At Agadez, in Ni ger , he had crept back up to eig h th pl ace. despite still being over two hours adrift of works Yam aha rider Serge Baco u . The daunting two-day loop through th e very heart o f the Sahara. th e T en ere desert , began. ni cknam ed the " Sa n to s Ra id " by rally organ izer Thierry Sabine a nd designed to deliberately th in the field o ut . if not actua lly kill them. It ma y be unkind to suggest th at old motocros s headbangers hav e difficulty opera ting maps a nd com pa ss, but blind ed by sandsto rms as the y rod e through featureless dun es, an aw ful lot of th em got los t.., exce p t litt le Gast on on th e biggest and least- Gaston, in the middle of his two BMW teammates, with the massive BMW he'd ride to victory in Paris-Dakar. The man is tough , 17

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