Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Cycle News 2002 01 30

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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Total Arras-Madrid-Dakar Rally test from Zguid to Foum EI Hassan. De Gavardo became the first multiple-stage winner here, topping his rivals by nearly three minutes. The test proved the undoing of the hardcharging Tiainen, who broke spokes in his front wheel. Although he was eventually given a fresh hoop by Jean Brucy, Tiainen then disintegrated his Bib Mousse, and he ultimately posted a slow enough time that his hopes for a win were dashed. The following day brought the latter portion of the Marathon stage and what turned out to be a pivotal special test, but first there was a 219mile, early-morning transfer south out of Tan-Tan, through the Moroccooccupied Western Sahara, to the border with the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, where riders were given time for a couple hours' sleep; accommodations (in the dirt, beside the bikes) were primitive. (Above) As expected, the rally was absolutely dominated by Austrian manufacturer KTM, although other bikes did meet some modest success. Japanese rider Jun Mitsuhashl was the top non-KTM rider on his Honda XR650R. (Right) One of the fastest and most popular riders In the rally was diminutive Cario de Gavardo, here heading to his tent for a post-stage nap. The Chilean was in the hunt for the overall win until he got lost on a late stage. He eventually finished fourth overall. (Below) Airplanes are an integral part of advancing the rally personnel and equipment through the desert. Here, a cargo plane buzzes a special-test finish as It drops Into the Atar, Mauritania, bivouac. MAURITANIA Awaking from their humble naps early in the morning, the competitors crossed the border and embarked on the fastest special test of the rally. Meoni had known from the get-go that this would be his opportunity on the big twin. Reaching a top speed of 116 mph, the Italian pushed his twin hard, taking chances and finishing an impressive seven minutes up on de Gavardo, the next-fastest rider. The high-speed blitz also gave Meoni the win in the Marathon stage and, more importantly, moved him into the overall lead for the first time in the rally. The defending champ now had a three-minute cushion over Roma, and a showdown was set for the latter part of the rally. The weather was warming as the caravan continued south, and the following day (January 5) was a hot one. The stage was rather short, at less than 250 miles (nearly all of it special test), but it took its toll on ·the field nonetheless. Several racers had problems, the most notable being Brucy (who crashed, was knocked unconscious, received assistance from a helicopter crew, and rejoined the race) and Gauloises KTM teammate Alfie Cox (who was spat off spectacularly in a rocky section, but continued racing with a bent exhaust). Tiainen, however, avoided such problems on his way to posting his first stage-win of the rally, though he was out of the running in the overall standings. Going into the rest day in Atar, the overall win was being contested between three riders - Meoni, de Gavardo, and Roma, all of whom were within about two minutes of one another. The next stage - a 250-mile loop out of and back into Atar brought a new twist to the rally, as riders weren't allowed to use their GPS units (with the exception of the compass function). Capitalizing on the relatively late start brought on by 22 JANUARY 30, 2002' cue his crash and low finish of the previous stage, Cox reeled in the riders ahead of him and won the special test, just ahead of the three riders who were still .vying for the overall. Despite feeling under the weather, Meoni finished second on the day and picked up another minute on Roma. The next day took the racers on a brutal stage to Tidjikja, and de Gavardo used the same technique as Cox the previous day, utilizing the advantage of a late start (brought about by a poor finish the previous day) to catch up to the leaders and post the day's win. Meoni was third, and the top three overall closed up on time, with just a couple of minutes separating them. Meoni, however, had plans of using the late-start advantage to open things back up. "The others with the small engines are very tired and stayed behind and used less physical strength than me today," Meoni said. "The terrain does I • neVllS not favor my bike. The stage was very physical. Tomorrow I will leave the start behind the two leaders from today, and I will catch them." Cox, however, started even later (fifth), and therefore was able to win the January 9 stage to Tichit, Roma was second, but although he closed to within one minute of Meoni in the overall results, the Italian had to consider himself fortunate. For one thing, Roma had threatened to beat Meoni by even more, but he experienced late odometer troubles that allowed the defending champ to minimize the damage. For another thing, de Gavardo pretty much dropped out of the hunt for the win when he got lost for a bout 20 minutes (he was also slowed by sickness and a sore shoulder). The next day brought a wind storm and a loop stage that started and finished in Tichit, and once again, organizers didn't allow the use of GPS. The win went to an Italian on a KTM twin, but it wasn't Meoni; instead, teammate Giovani Sala was quickest for the first time, shaking off a series of bad-luck problems he had suffered earlier in the week. "You know why Meoni wins so often?" Giovani Sala asked. "Because he's strong. So today I said, 'I'm going to be strong too.'" The test was brutal, with mile after mile of camel grass (hard tufts of grass placed intermittently in the sand) that made the riders work hard and prevented them from sitting down. Despite a hard crash, Meoni was second, stretching his advantage over Roma to three minutes. But while there were only three days remaining in the rally, he knew that the following day - January 11 would be the decider. "Tomorrow will be the real day," he said. "We'll see if I can still stay ahead. It will be very, very tough." Sure enough, the next special south to Kiffa proved to be key, with a tricky area that required strong riding and navigation skills. The riders started down a dirt road they had been on two days earlier, going in the general direction of the next waypoint on the GPS, but the road book called for a detour off of the main route after a few miles. Of the top riders, only Meoni and Sainct made the proper turn, while Roma, Cox and company missed it and found themselves in a deep box canyon, with the proper route up above them on top of a high dune. They soon realized that if they didn't get out of the canyon, they would miss a secret checkpoint that had been hinted at during the previous night's riders' meeting. Unfortu-

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