Pavey Dakar Diary: day 8

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.

After a tough stage seven, Llewelyn has just broken down on stage eight with a blown oil line, and while waiting on support from the crew has taken the time to check in after yesterday.

Llewelyn Pavey

• Start position: 74th
• Finish Position: 76th

“I’m just sat in a random side street waiting for Ev (Team SP FiFTYONE technician Evan Davies) to arrive with the van. My old man has gone back to get them because we didn’t get far off the start before my bike started to leak oil and smoke everywhere. I think it is an oil union really badly corroded and because we were so close it made sense to get the van.”
 
“Yesterday though was utter carnage. I think the organisers made a big mistake setting us off across the salt flat, for 150kms there were bikes constantly in bits.
It was all down to the salt water kicking up off the front wheels and was really random, some people were ok, many weren’t. We rode side-by-side and my bike broke down, his didn’t.”

“We did about 85kms of the 130 or so across the flats before mine just stopped working. Dad towed me for about 50kms and we passed so many bikes it was unreal. Most of them trying to fix their bikes in three inches of salt water and it was really cold up there too.”

“We spent about 2 ½ hours just off the flats literally cleaning up every wire connection on the bikes. Salt was everywhere and so many connectors had already started to corrode.”

“By the time we finished that it was already 2pm and we were well behind but we were not alone, so many top riders too. We rode hard after that to get back but we still didn’t make it to the dunes before dark. It was only 40kms or so in the sand but it was pretty sketchy going down the massive dune to the Bivouac. Mad seeing the lights in the distance from such a height but I cruised down at about 50kmh, I was too scared to go any faster.”

“It was a crazy decision by the organisers to let the bikes go across the salt, the whole day seemed like it was just for the TV pictures to be honest.”

“It was carnage in the bivouac too. KTM must have sold thirty complete wiring looms. Our bikes were so crusted up it was unbelievable, every bit of metal covered. Evan had a hell of a night, completely stripping both bikes down and cleaning everything up. He literally bolted the last bolt at two minutes to seven when we left. He’s been up all night.”