Day two was another long stage with only two special tests.
The first was a short ride out of town and started on a ridge, we had left the
start on one minute intervals but the special was started at two minute gaps.
Inevitably there was some bunching up and a bit of a wait ensued, now the warm
sunny day didn’t seem so warm or sunny having gained a bit of altitude!
It wasn’t too long until I got to start and the stage
started as a fairly smooth dirt twin track descending the other side of the
ridge to the one we’d climbed. A very tight right hand hairpin bend soon
appeared and scrubbing off sufficient speed wasn’t the easiest job, judging by
the skids marks running to the edge of a substantial drop, I wasn’t the only
one to find this out.
The track continued steeply downhill to the next bend,
another sharp hairpin this time to the left. As I approached I spotted a figure
sitting on the side of the track with his head in his hands but no sign
anywhere of his bike, seeing it was my friend Tony Whitehead, I stopped to
assist knowing that I could get my time back (as it would be recorded by the
GPS tracker) but this wasn’t my first priority at the time. It turned out Tony
had overshot the bend and cartwheeled off down the slope. He was unhurt but
simply exhausted by his efforts to try and drag the bike back up to the track.
Now a KTM 300EXC two stroke isn’t the heaviest of bikes but
trying to drag it, push it and even pull it with the aid if a tow rope back up
the slope was a mammoth task. We were eventually helped by another rider and to
be honest I’m not sure we’d have managed without his assistance. I eventually
got underway again and the special went pretty well with no navigation issues.
The second special stage of the day was less successful, after a good start
when a slightly ambiguous “tulip” on the road book meant many riders missed a
turning off the main track during a climb up to a ridge. The diagram seemed to
imply that you stayed on the main track and there was a fork off to the left,
whereas on the ground the main track carried on with a slight bend to the left
whilst the correct route forked off right. The road book did helpfully include
the information that the turning was “difficult to see” and that it was “downhill” (the main track
was climbing steadily) and the track was “mauvais” (bad); it was certainly all
three of those and to my mind there was no doubt I had taken the correct route.
It did give me a bit of pleasure to see loads of tyre tracks heading up the
hill and only a couple turning off.
What followed was a very long, winding and very rocky track
contouring along the side of the ridge to eventually reaching a cross roads in
the track that was marked on the road book and confirmed my route choice. It
transpired that those who missed the turning took a much faster track over the
ridge to meet up again at this point, so all received a ten minute penalty for
their error!
After my good start I did have a moment of doubt later in
the stage which cost me a few minutes to check the route but otherwise I was
going well until approximately 2km from the end of the stage, when my road book
stopped working and refused to scroll forwards even manually. It transpired
that the rubber drive belts had come off and got tangled, jamming the top
roller. I had the choice of stopping and trying to fix it (but didn’t know what
the problem was at that time) or chancing to luck and following tyre tracks. I
chose the latter and it worked OK for another kilometre until I arrived at a
cross roads with tyre tracks going in three different directions!!! I chose to
go left but this turned out to be wrong, so I back tracked and took the right
hand route but that too turned out to be wrong, so went back again and took the
third option, straight on and soon arrived at the stage finish! In the event
it hadn’t made a great difference to my position as so many people got
penalties but could have been a chance to significantly improve my placing…
c’est la vie!
A stop at the nearby “Cock Café” and I met up again with
Tony who bought me lunch for my assistance earlier in the day! We then rode
together for the remainder of the liaison stage until shortly before the
descent into Pampilhosa da Sera, when I took the wrong turn at a slightly
complicated junction. After a couple of turns I realised Tony hadn’t followed
me so stopped and killed the engine to listen but could hear nothing. I then
decided to head back to the junction but the bike wouldn’t start! Repeated
attempts had the battery starting to struggle until I suddenly realised…. It was petrol! After 150km I had obviously
run onto reserve, a quick turn of the tap and it fired up straight away. I
headed back, found the right track and headed back to the finish at the hotel
via the petrol station for a refuel and a jet wash.
Evening maintenance was again straightforward, a top up of
the engine oil, some oil on the chain and I was going to change the air filter
again but realised the remaining “clean” air filter I had brought in my spares
box was in fact a dirty one. The filter on the bike looked cleaner, so it
stayed on there. I changed the front brake pads as they were getting a bit
worn, they most probably would have been OK but I decided better safe than
sorry.
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