Ola Chicos

 Awright, here is the summer update!!!!!   Well, lots has happened since last update and baja Portugal.   

Immediately after my return from Portugal, it was time to get ready for Jordan Baja.  So, I started training on my new FE. 

An extremely good bike that belong to Mark, an auzzie who used to race and was built by Robbie from Mx Performance in Dubai.   It has all the top of the line after market stuff to make this machine a beast.  I might race it later on in the year in Doha or Dubai.   

Bak to Jordan Baja. 9 of us from the UAE were making the trip.  We dropped our bikes at Hamdan's and loaded them up on trailer to be hauled from Abu Dhabi to Aqaba, whilst all of us flew in. 

We unloaded and prep the bike for the next day prologue, did the admin stuff, collected our sticker and numbers, enjoy some lunch in downtown Aqaba, passed scrutineering and made to the riders briefing in the evening. 

Then following day was the prologue.   Normally, prologues are marked but this one was roadbook.  Thinking that I am always smarter than anybody else, I figured there would be enough traces to follow without looking at the roadbook and achieve good results.   Well, as usual I was wrong.   Prologue was on gravel and rock and difficult to navigate without roadbook.  And similarly to Portugal, I turned right when I should have gone left and when I realized I was on the wrong path, had to return.   On 5km prologue, that means I finished last.  Oh well, 

The second day was a long day with a 292km Special Section, and 150km liaison.   I managed to catch up with Barry and road together for a while until I stupidly crashed while enjoying the scenery which was absolutely breath taking and unfortunately broke my roadbook remote.   

So, I managed to get back to the neutralization zone, but instead of waiting the 30 minutes, I caught up with Barry, Jason and Sultan to follow them.   That way, I could follow them without using my roadbook.   That meant, I would get a 45 min penalty but then again, I wasn't going to win anything so best to enjoy. 

The second day was shorter, 192km, but equally beautiful.  The issue was, I had not find a replacement for my remote and therefore could only navigate manually.   That meant, scrolling the roadbook by hand.   Easily said than done when you are in technical section (which there was plenty of).   On the other end, it's a great way to train on navigation.  

I must have gotten lost 5-6 times but what a fantastic day of riding in the place where they filmed Star Wars.  I finished last of the one that completed the rally, but I was really happy and thrilled.  

Back to Dubai with a great sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.   Still a lot to learn but satisfied that I was able to navigate and sustain the 300km special section without physical suffering.  

Backed in Dubai, it was time to join the Get Out There newly created Racing team for Abu Dhabi National Baja.   The national baja, as opposed to international baja are races consisting of 30km loop without roadbook.   Pure desert race without navigation.   Whoever completed the first 4 laps is declared winner and the race ends when the winner finishes, irrespective how many laps have been accomplished by the remaining participants.  There are 4 national baja race per season.  On this day, it was Dogherty (2 stages win at this year Dakar) who took 1st.

I met up with Jorge and Maddi to get to the racing camp, spend the night camping out with the GOT team and had a blast shooting the breeze by the fire.  

I found the track a bit technical, apparently few riders had complained the previous race was too speedy favoring faster machine, so the Marshall had done a more technical, dunning trace this time.   The FE worked well, and I finished middle of the pack.   There were about 75 riders that day and I finished around 30th.   

As the summer is settling in the middle east, there are no more race until Q3 this year, so it's only training or races in Europe.   In preparation for Aragon Intl Baja, that will take place end on July in Teruel Spain, I have been training on the Husky in the desert and with the Kove on gravel terrain near the Omani border.  

And occasionally I join the Rally guys on their sunday afternoon run followed by BBQ in the desert.  

I also attended the post Dakar briefing held at Cafe Rider in Dubai with Willem Avenant who gave us a great insight on his Dakar. 

Plan for the summer is continuing training, participate in Aragon Baja, and towards late august take few days off in south of France to ride my Dyna.  On this note, I am planning to do bit of work on the dyna but will keep you posted later on this subject. 

   

And as usual to finish this post, some radom pics I stole fm the internet.