NorthCape-SouthCape: 060110
Finished
Now everything is as ready as it can be for the Africa section of our trip. We have left a big box in Cairo that will hopefully be sent home. In it are the snowmobile overalls, thick clothing, a BMW System 5 helmet and mittens and my snow shoes. We only hope the customs people aren’t as fussy letting this leave Egypt, as they were about the two bikes for Ian and Lukas. Boredom is beginning to set in and we will probably go over to Sinai tomorrow and stay at the Holiday Inn near Nyweiba.
With great sorrow I saw the news that Andy was killed in the Dakar. How you feel inside is always difficult to describe. I know he knew about the risks and if you do the rally for the second or third time, you know this. At least if you have ambitions about being near the top. I have said it before and am saying it again, ride with the flock in touring pace and the risk is not particularly great, about the same as riding a bike in city traffic. Nobody, and I mean nobody, can ride safely and win a stage. I always told my wife Eva that I rode fully in control and with some safety margin, but that was stretching the truth a bit. It was true up to a point, but in certain stages of a day’s stage all top rider take calculated risks. The art is to do it at the right time.
Richard Saincts was a specialist in this field. He could read the
terrain like no other and rarely took chances, and took risks only
in the ”right” places. Ive been riding behind him many
stages in the Dakar and was always impressed by his calculated riding.
Sometimes he was even slow in the dangerous sections, like he was
riding a Harley-Davidson in a parade. Still, he was killed in the
next to last race of the Desert Challenge, the Pharao in the autumn
2004. My idol was Meoni, more like me when it came to taking risks,
but he rarely crashed. When he did, it was like in the 2003 Dakar,
at high speed. He somersaulted at 160kph and his KTM 950 looked more
like a French corkscrew than a desert bike. The KTM mechanics had
to work all night. We can only imagine how his body felt the next
day after he had used it as a brake pad. And what happened? The next
day he won the special stage! Respect! When I saw his name at the
top of the day’s results on the white board the same night,
I had goose pimples. Talk about a hard man. He was my idol.
I did the Australian Safari 2002 and that’s when I met Andy Caldecott the first time. He was extremely quick and nobody could beat him at home. Nobody threatened him in that race. The next time was the 2004 Dakar, when he was far from fast. He seemed to be there to see and learn and I talked to him shortly before he fell out with a broken foot. He said the terrain was much different from what he was used to. GPS was new to him and the rally notes were also different from what he was used to. My impressions were of an extremely talented rider who kept his equipment in order.
Rest in peace, Andy !
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High
Performance Riding
www.pgdakar.com |
Per-Gunnar
Lundmark
Fjällbonäs 15
933 91 Arvidsjaur |
Per-Gunnar
Lundmark
Eva.PG.Lundmark@swipnet.se
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Updated
2006-01-13
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