Pavey Dakar Diary: day 6

With not one but two Paveys in Dakar this year, as veteran campaigner Simon is joined by son Llewelyn, the pair still has a hard battle ahead of them to complete the arduous 9295km race across South America.

With many riders making minor detours, and the overall leading duo of Joan Barreda and Marc Coma having a tremendous cat and mouse battle up front, Team SP FiFTYONE riders Simon and Llewelyn Pavey had a full day of typical Dakar drama yesterday.

Simon Pavey

• Start position: 71st
• Finish Position: 74th

“Yesterday the riding in places was like it has been a lot this year, long straights with loads of fesh-fesh, dust, holes and horrible. But in the canyon there for a while it was absolutely beautiful. Beautiful to look at and really enjoyable riding and you want a bit of that each day. Those are the places where you want to push on a bit and ride how you know you can just to show yourself really.

I road with Llel a bit in the middle of the special. We found each other going in different directions! After that we had a bit of navigation trouble through a ‘bike-only’ section which was lovely to ride, like an enduro, but confusing on the road books, so it took us a while there.

Once we got to the re-fuel the trucks and the cars joined the track so it meant there were trucks and cars in front of you going into the dune area. Which [sucks in air] was almost like back to the old days (when routes were a bit less planned out for the safety of the motorcycle riders – Ed).

I stopped at the check to get some more water so Llel was ahead then and I was just riding at my own pace when the bike alarm went off (to say there was a bike crashed nearby) and it was really weird because there was nowhere for it really to be. I was looking and riding and there was a little wind pocket hole in the sand, I looked back and saw a bike and realized it was Llel.

There was a medical car at the top of the hill, they got the alarm too and they came down the hill and had a look at him. They gave us some pain-killers and water and I suppose we were there a while but for an indeterminate amount of time.

After that it just made it a long day because it was really hard for Llel to ride through the dunes because, more than anything, I think he just lost his confidence. It was really early on in the dunes and they were difficult. I’ve ridden a lot of dunes and they were difficult, no question about it. They were big and really, really soft towards the crests and that last bit so judging the speed and timing of approach was real hard. The cars and trucks had been through by then as well so it was just carnage.

But it’s alright, we got through the day and at least he’s good to fight another day. It could have been worse.

It’s not really a rest day today, there’s a load of admin and we did a load of washing this morning which always feels nice to get your kit freshened up a bit. It’s just an opportunity to have an easy workday really, not rest, we have to sort out passport control here today because we cross the border to Bolvia tomorrow. It’s all about getting freshened up: the bikes, the clothing, the body for sure and keeping hydrated.

Everyone’s kind of counting the days a bit, naturally. Because it’s so important to get that finisher’s medal you start to want it over towards the end. Tomorrow looks long again but hopefully everyone will take a bit more of a survival mode and not doing anything crazy. I’ve seen it a lot in other years where the day after the rest day people do go out and there’s a lot of crazy racing again like day one.

In the past they’ve done that mass start too. As soon as you put twenty riders in a line they put their race heads on. You might go to the start line telling yourself to just let everyone go, but when you’re there you just can’t. So that might be a bit scary if that happens! I’m not a fan of it, I don’t think anyone is. They just do it for the helicopter shot I think really. Anyway, I’ll see you in two days.”

Llewelyn Pavey

• Start position: 69th
• Finish Position: 73rd

 “I had an unlucky moment today in the dunes, just going through a big wide sand valley. The sentinel went off so I checked behind me to make sure I wasn’t going to pull in front of the truck and the next thing I knew I was flying through the air (the sentinel is a warning beacon on all vehicles, triggered by a pursuing vehicle to let the competitor in front know to beware, more often used to say ‘let me past’).

It was just a small dune, probably a wind pocket that was hidden because of where the sun was and I didn’t even crash I just hit the other side of it really hard and, well it hurt quite frankly!

I hit the bike and cut my chin, sprained my ankle and did a bit of lying about on the floor for a bit, some moaning about life in general. I’m still ok to ride but it hurts a lot. My old man caught me and helped there and I needed it because I kept getting stuck in the sand because I couldn’t ride. It meant we were a couple of hours later getting in so it was another long day.

Aside from that it’s important to get here to the rest day and half way through the rally. It seems like a lot of people have been going out the rally along the way and if I was going to hurt myself I probably couldn’t have picked a better time to do it. It’s nice to be able to relax, put some ice on my ankle and rest for a day.

Tomorrow looks like a long day still but although it’s hard to say, looking at the route it doesn’t look too horrendous going into Bolivia. 800-odd Kms each day is long enough but I think I’ll be able to kind of tick it out, cruise along. For me the hardest part has been and will be the dunes, simply because I’m still learning how to ride that bike in them.

My ankle should be fine. The only time it was really hurting was on the tracks that were beaten up, and they were really beaten up yesterday. Braking and acceleration bumps into and out of every corner, it’s like there was a motocross on. That was the only time it was real bad. In the dunes I could still stand up and do enough to get through them. Hour by hour it’s getting better, I’m icing it, I’ve taken some drugs and I think we’ll be ok.”