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G0FF-R0AD Acerbis Adventure Nevada Rally e~ Alain Olivier came from behind to. score the third major rally win of his career. Charles Halcomb lost his headlight in a final-day crash, but still notched second overall. . O liviertre at'NevadaRally sbien By Chris ]onnum LAS VEGAS, NY, AUG. 22 -28 t the first major off-road rally held on Am er ican soil , Alain Olivier gave the ho st country's riders a French lesson that they won 't soon forget, at least not if they're smart. Resting in a modest sixth place at the end of the seco nd day of the se ve n-d ay ev en t, Olivier, 28, us ed consi stency and rally experi ence to work his way to the front on th e ev en t's ne xt to last d ay, and stayed there to the finish. It was a textbook display of intelligent rally riding, and hopefully, the Americans were taking notes. Though rallies are extremely popular in Euro pe, and are often held in such places as Afr ica , South America and Australia, dome stic race fans are for the most part unfamiliar with the demanding competitions. The "raid-marathons" combine the high speeds of the Baja 1000, the navigating skills of a dualsport ride, and the pageantry, special tests and multiple days of the International Six Days Enduro, making for grueling events that are a challenge to even finish. A 18 In the Nevada Rally, entrants completed 2000 miles in a week of riding with a one-day break, tra versin g any where from 165 to 370 miles per day. Special tests, in which riders were to go as fast as they could for the duration, made up the majority of the course, with the remainder consisting of transfer sections in which a liberal speed schedule was given. Unlike typical Am erican desert races, course mar kings were at a minimum, and each competi tor used 'a road book and an odometer for navigation. . "I wanted to come to th is rally as soon as I heard about it," said Cycle Gear /Moose Racing/Braking/FMF / Roxy /Techno / Sidi /Scott / RK/ Bel-Ray / Acerbis-sponsored Olivier, through an interpreter. "Many Europeans didn't take it seriously, but I paid my own money to come . I was a little worried after the first two days; I would have looked silly if I returned without doing well." The Nevada Rally is a new endeavor for Acerbis Adventure, the promoting ° arm of p las tic parts manu factur er Acerbis Italia. The organization is most noted for promoting the Incas Rally in Per u a nd Brazil from 1986 to '9 0. Acerbis posted a $25,000 purse for the inaugural running, and Olivier earned $5000 for his overall win, plus $SOD for each of the two days that he won . Promoting a rally within the United Sta tes req uired arranging special permits in o rder that th e off-road bikes could be ridden on short pavement sections. The small towns visited during the rally seemed to welcome the riders, support crews and organization personal, entertaining them with a wild west show, Basque dancing exhibition, poetry reading, rodeo, and other diversions. "I honestly feel this is the only state where we even had a chance of putting on an event like this," said Nevada residen t Casey Folks, who served as course marsha l. " It was a lot of work, but everyone from the BLM to city officials w as extremely cooperative, and we were able to pull it off." The event offered all of the ingredi- ° ents that rallies are famous for, including high speeds, long distances, controversy, an international array of entrants, dramatic changes in top pos itions, and unfortunately, traged y. After Saturday's tech inspection and "Moto Fair" (a trade show in which manufacturers d isplayed their wares), Sunday morning started with a motocross-style prologue in the parking lot of Las Vegas' Excalibur Hotel, the event's major sponsor. The "special test" was primarily for show, and only served to determine start positions. Halcomb posted the fastest time and earned the golden bib, which like the yellow jersey of bicycling 's Tour de France and other major race s, was worn by the various overall leaders throughout the event. From the second day on, start positions were determined by the previous day's results. Two-t ime 250cc MX World Champion Heinz Kinigadner, of Austria, purposely loafed in the morning's test and thus started back in the pack, from where the course was easier to follow. At just165 miles, day one was the shortest of the rally, and included only a single special test of approximately 100 miles . But temperatures well over the 100-degree mark assured that it would not be a cakewalk, and most riders were exhausted by the time they arrived at the finish in the small gambling town of Mesquite. American Baja ace Dan Ashcraft rode his Honda XR600 to the fastest time of one hour, 54 min°