British-based team return to Dakar

Britsh-based BMW team riders Simon Pavey and Nick Plumb will compete in the Telefonica-Dakar rally for the second consecutive year.

Plumb and Pavey are both instructors on BMW’S Off-Road Skills course in Wales, and while Pavey will ride the same F650 GS Dakar he used in 2003, Plumb will convert one of the student bikes usually used on the school.

In 2003 the Dakar was Plumb’s first-ever international rally, and the 25-year-old finished in a creditable 65th place from 98 finishers.

” We were riding for up to 17 hours a day, then we would arrive at the next bivouac and have to work on the bikes ourselves, ” said Plumb. ” We would be back on the bikes at 5am the next morning, riding alone through the desert. ”

Pavey was forced to retire in 2003 with a tyre problem.

” Nick and I had to do all the work ourselves last time. This year we have a great team with two support crew in a four-wheel drive, ” said the Australian rally veteran. ” This year’s race will be harder. It’s going back to the classic Dakar, riding through Mauritania and Mali. They’re huge countries with no roads, only big sand dunes. ”

Plumb is looking forward to the dunes. ” Some of them are as big as a 12-storey tower block and you have to accelerate coming down them or you sink into the sand or go over the handlebars. It’s mad. ”

To read reports from the 2003 Dakar rally, follow the appropriate links on the right. Discuss the chances of the pair on the Off Road discussion boards, by following the appropriate link.