Taklimakan Desert Rally, Racing at Last

Hi All…..to continue on with my Urumqi Bike Adventure. – Another update 2

Will we ever get to actually race?

We had already ridden over 2000km, seen and experienced adventures along the way, however the point was to come and race.

Well… we all woke up early hoping this was the day, we all gathered at the main race hotel and then all rode about 20 km out of town to the race start.

A clear ..ish day, hot, all looked ok to race.

Getting to the race was a bit tricky, very deep powder sand, I actually feel off getting the start line…not a good start. Hehehehe

This was it we were finally going to do it; it was a 69km stage, with a cut off time of 6hrs. 6 hrs, this is a long time to cover 69km, strange this is an average speed of 11.5km , seemed a bit slow.

The race 4 x 4 all went first, then the bike bikes, with us, S-class (the foreigners) the last to leave.

Ok, I was now very nervous and thinking, what the hell and I doing here, keep it together, ride careful, just get through with no major injuries.

It was excitement and fear all mixed up, this was going to be fun.

Coming up the start was scary, deep powder sand that had been made deeper and more difficult to ride on; the main objective now was not to fall off at the start, to many TV and cameras about.

We would go off in pairs, at 2 minute intervals, my pair was Max, and he was a much better rider than me, so I knew I could always follow him for a while.

The adrenaline was really pumping, was I really doing this,

Yip, silly boy…hehehe

We were off, stay on, stay on, I was thinking, don’t full off; well I was ok I stayed on.

Where was Max, was he in front or behind me, all my concentration was on the piece of sand in front of me and trying the figure out a way to ride that did not involve falling off every 10 minutes.

The deep powder sand that I fell off in going the start was typical of the entire stage, sand dunes with soft sand, deep ruts, miles of nothing, the bike seemed to have a mind of its own and went wherever it wanted to, the slightest sand density change would either make me fall off, or make me go in a direction I did not what to go.

Either way it was a fight to stay on and moving, the entire 69km was done in either 1st or 2nd gear.

It was exhausting, constantly fighting and moving with the dunes and sand, you would go over a sand dune in about a foot deep sand, then on the other side, 3 foot deep soft sand, all you can do in this situation is fly over the handle bars and hope nothing gets broken.

Pick yourself up, dig the bike out, drag it to where you can pick it up and try to get going again. Tough stuff. I lost count on the number of times I fell off and went over the handle bars.

The whole day was like this, I can see now why there was such a long cut off time.

Well I did it, the pictures are in the Album “I Did it” 5 hrs 14minutes, after the start I crossed the finish line.

Only 2 of the 10 of us so far had made it out in front of me, Kyle and Jonno blasted in around the 2 to 3 hr mark with me over 3 hrs later, however still within the 6hrs, only 3 of us out of 10 made it within the cut off time.

I was exhausted but amazingly alive with a real sense of accomplishment.

2 others of our group came in about 2 to 3 hrs after me; that made 5 still out in the desert somewhere.

The race support was very good; sweeper rescue teams coming up behind us were finding everyone, towing the crashed or stuck cars, finding the bikes and riders.

Late into the night all of our team was accounted for, all safe and in one piece.

What a day, 3 of us on the score board, 7 now knowing just how tough it is, Max who I had lost very early on in the race was one of the guys to finish but not within time.

I finished and within time, this was the major shock to everyone for the day, the oldest member and one of the least experience riders of our team.

I was very proud of me today.

I will post the last stage in a few days; this stage was a 240km ride straight up a dry river bed, right up the heart of the Taklimakan Desert.

Take Care All

John
www.Travel-the-Real-China.com