Demetrio, Celio, Jean and myself are heading home after 20 very intense days in South America. Many emotions, more reparation, wonderful impressions, very little sleep and many new friends are the things we will bring home. Yesterday evening we went out for a quiet evening in a restaurant in Buenos Aires. Celio and Demetrio mentioned to me that their first experience as a Loctite Charlie gave them a new insight about our brands Loctite, Pattex and Teroson and they were very impressed about this. So many were the competitors coming back to the Charlies with great gratitute, for the support we gave, for how well our products work. This is a fantastic feeling if you know that all the work you put in developing products is actually valued by top racing teams, who often say to us:”Without your help, my bike would have never been able to end the Race” or “We just love your hand-cleaner, it’s the best in the World!“I come from the research area, and I just love knowing that mechanics in fact really love the stuff we develop and it’s recognized as the best! Great Job R&D!

As the responsible for the communication material what I bring home besides many images and testimonials, is difficult to describe. The Rally Dakar leaves deep marks in everybody’s memory. You hate it after 15 days, you could not properly shower, sleep, eat, and you are really looking forward to go home and have a bath, but as soon as it ends, you start thinking and planning on the next one, because in fact you love it. Day by day one is confronted with new unexpected situations and everyone, not only the pilots, is put in situation at the limit.

For our brands the Rally Dakar represents the ultimate application. We, the Loctite Charlies once more could witness how important and valued the presence of Henkel’s brands is at extreme racing events.

   

Rally Dakar 2009, originally uploaded by dunerider70.

Sponsored driver Annie Seel arrived glorious in Buenos Aires few minutes ago. With great happiness painted on her face Annie was welcomed by dozens of journalists and photographers who cheerer at her. Everybody clapped hands and many shouted her name:”Annie! Annie! you are the true winner of this race!

Loctite sponsored Motorbike Driver Miran Stanovnik just arrived at the Rural ending the Dakar 2009 with position no. 13 Overall. What an incredible result for Miran, who has been driving excellently with no major problem during the whole rally. Jean congratulates Miran at the arrival in the area where all press is gathered to welcome the participants.

Today, after the last stage with 227 km of special the spaniard Marc Coma reached Buenos Aires winning the 2009 edition of the Rally Dakar. Three years after his first triumph in Senegal, on the other side of the ocean, the Catalan became the first Dakar winner in Latin America.
I just arrived at the press room in La Rural, where there is a unusual and unexpected atmosphere. I was expecting hundreds of people if not thousand of people around, and realized security have blocked the access to the arrival podium which is apparently only open to the press. There are a lot of Argentinians on the street, but nobody close to the podium yet. Looking forward to see all competitors arriving, I will now take a taxi to the Parc Ferme’ at the University Area, where the Bikes are supposed to arrive. Tomorrow there will be the podium ceremony where all competitors will show themselves to the public and the media.

Annie faced a very hard day yesterday, Stage 12 Fiambala-La Rioja. During the whole day the mechanics and myself were not able to get detailed information about what happened and we were all very worried as it appeared she would be stuck between CP2 and the end of the special stage. Laurent, her mechanic, his teammates and myself were running up and down all evening between CPO and the service truck in order to read Iritrack data. We only got information from some drivers passing by. We knew a helicopter had landed to help her, but no more. Finally at 2:00 am Annie made it back to the bivouac. Annie fell between CP2 and the end of the stage. She injured her shoulder which was already suffering from a ligament problem. With a lot of pain, exhausted she was helped by a team-mate motorbiker to get up and a helicopter came to bandage her. She did not give up and kept going, and eventually reached the end of the stage. Because she already had passed CP2, the information that the special stage had been shortened by the organization did not reach her. She fought for ending the original special stage, in pain, without need. All professional drivers criticized vary badly the difficulty of this particular stage. Many said it has been the most difficult stage in their life. Hard to imagine what this means. Just too much! Too dangerous many of them say. The organization decided to shorten the second part of the special stage (after CP2) when cars, trucks and bikes were stuck at the bottom of high dunes, with no engine power left, due to the effect high altitude over 4000 metres has on fuel engines if the carburator is not adapted to the conditions. I was shocked when Annie told me that cars and trucks, because they were not able to climb the dunes from one side, they would be forced to take a u-turn and drive full speed against the direction motorbikers were driving. Bikers would face cars and Trucks with the risk of a frontal impact. I accompanied Annie to the medics at 2:30 am. Annie wanted to be bandaged in order to keep competing the following day. “If I made it today, tomorrow I will also make it” she said. The medics, myself and the mechanics motivated her to think carefully wether to continue racing in this conditions. No way… It is impossible to stop Annie. Annie woke up, jumped on her bike this morning at 6:45 am, holding her bike with the power of one arm only. She is now racing.  ”You cannot stop superwoman” said Laurent, after we both saw her departing from the Meca’System truck. Fingers crossed for her!!!

People welcoming the caravane in Cordoba

The Charlies just love South Americans. The people are so welcoming here. It never happened to us to feel like “stars”. People seem to be so fond of motorsport here that we are asked many times a day to pose with them for pictures. Just crazy - makes us smile a lot.  The passage of the Rally Dakar 2009 is a unique event and probably for some smaller villages the most exciting event in history. In the larger cities the crowds of people welcoming us and the competitors is just absolutely amazing. Hundreds and hundreds of people fill the streets, shout, cheer. Annie Seel at the arrival in Copiapo explained me that many people shout her name while she is passing by. They remember her from the Patagonia Rally a couple of years ago. She was amazed by this. “I have my personal fans here - and they remember me - that’s so great here”. While I am in La Rioja in an Internet Cafe uploading the Blog, she is racing the special stage between Fiambala and La Rioja. Should be very muddy and hard today, as it has been pouring rain all night. Looking forward to see her at the Bivouac this afternoon.

Sponsored motorbiker Tina Meier (#100), unfortunately dropped out of the race on the second day. The morning of the same day Eurosport transmitted images from her helmet camera with her cheering and greeting her family. The same afternoon, just before finishing the special and having fought against the fesh fesh for all day (the finest sand, deadly for everyone) her bike gave up. It seems this was due to an elecrical problem. But Tina did not give up. She decided to change her role on the rally and joined another team supporting her friend Laurent Meffre (#170) as a mechanic, as as he did not anyone to support him. For the following days Tina would be reparing his bike at night and travel by day with the truck of the swedish army team. Yesterday evening at 22:00 I met her - surprise - on Laurent’s Bike. Laurent had dropperd off the race the day before and she did drive his bike across the andes from 8:00 (Copiapo) to 22:00 (La Rioja). I’m curious to hear her stories about the happenings in the last two days.

We finally arrived safely to La Rioja at 21:00 on the 14th of January, with no change of clothes, no tent, no other belongings than our toothbrush and a shampoo to share among the 4 of us. Same faith happened to the BF-Goodrich colleagues. The amount of people of the street we saw while driving to the bivouac, gave us an indication about the temperature outside… over 30 degrees. After another night sleeping in the same bus, we woke up this morning. The other busses had reached us, and we are now awaiting for the Loctite truck to reach the camp. At breakfast we spoke to several truck drivers who could not believe the bus driver had taken upon him the challenge of choosing the support road for crossing the andes… Luckily we are all safe (for now) and looking forward to see the first competitors reaching the bivouac this afternoon.

Dakar means adventure for all the participants, not only the drivers. The Loctite Charlies and myself were already stuck for 16 hours in a bus which was supposed to drive us from Copiapo to Fiambala crossing the Andes, when at over 4100 meters altitude and half way to go, road workers would not let the bus pass. “This is a piste, the bus will fall down”… We started getting worried when the bus driver did a u turn at the top of the mountain and informed us we would drive back to Copiapo. 

This turned out to be some kind of misunderstanding between the bus driver and these people. After a second u-turn and 1 hour delay on our schedule we kept going direction Fiambala. However this is not the end… we soon realized that the bus driver was chewing some stuff. After a couple of hours of travel through magnificent landscapes, pistes which are really not made for a bus, and life threatening curves, and less confidence in the driving skills of our driver, we received the news that the bus driver had missed the road to Fiambala, and we were going directly to the next stage, in La Rioja with no change of clothes, no tents, no equipment, no food since this morning (as everything is in the Loctite Truck) and no possibility tonight of supporting competitors. After that, I received a hint that the swollen cheek of the drivers was due to coca leafs, as they say coca minimizes the effect of hight sickness. As I write this post I am still in the bus, and have no idea where we will land tonight. It seems to me we are lost in the middle of Argentina.

With the disappointment of many competitors the whole special stage between Copiapo and Fiambala was cancelled due to heavy fog. The caravan with all participants, starting at 8 am, moves on from Copiapo, Chile over the high Andes (over 4000m) to the next bivouac in Fiambala, Argentina. Many of the vehicles reach directly La Rioja as the stages Copiapo - Fiambala - La Rioja are the “marathon stage” where competitors need to take care of their vehicles themselves. It is a long trip - 600 km with peak altitudes ranging between 4100 and 4700 metres.

When Julio Ano (#118) came to us with a little magnet in his hand, we were closing down the stand and could only give him the product for fixing it without doing it ourselves. He asked for help for fixing the little magnet to the wheel, as this was part of his tachometer. Without this, an important part of his instrumentation would be missing. He promised us that if this worked, he would come back and make a photo with us wearing a Loctite cap and stickers. The day after the stage he came, thanking us because the product worked perfectly. Proudly he showed us the work he did with Loctite adhesives and we took a couple of photos together!

While I am at the airport waiting for the airplane to carry me to Copiapo, today the competitors started very early (around 5:00 am) for one of the hardest and longest stages of the entire rally. We are getting closer and closer to the Atacama desert, known as the driest desert on earth. I spoke with many motorbike riders yesterday. Many knowing that today’s stage will be hard, have not pushed them selves to the limit. Tomorrow’s stage will be the hardest of the whole race! Let’s see how competitors face this extreme challenge!

Today the first motorbike started at 5:25 from Valparaiso. The length of the special leg today is of 449 Km with a total length of the stage of 537 Km. This is the first part of a intensive three days journey which will see competitors facing the Atacama desert the day after tomorrow. Once more, lots of sand and dust. This morning the Charlies arrived by bus departing at 4:00 am from Valparaiso. At this moment while I am at the press center updating this blog, the Truck is being unloaded and prepared for this afternoon when the first competitors will be reaching the bivouac in La Serena. While Despres Cyril just finished the special stage at position 1, followed by Marc Coma and Francisco Lopez, Annie Seel just passed CP1 and gained many positions from 61 to 47. Miran Stanovnik (#17) also passed CP1 at position 25.

Rally Dakar 2009, originally uploaded by dunerider70.

The bike-parts piling up at the Service point in the Bivouac in Valparaiso.

Rodolpho Mattheis (#39) had a damage to the tank of his bike, and he noticed this during the race at the refueling station. A hole in the tank probably due to a cactus thorns smashing against his bike. He knew about Loctite Metal Magic Steel and asked another competitor to help him place his bike upside down in order to be able to patch the hole as quickly as possible. With the use of this product he was able to patch the hole of the tank, and lost only 15-20 minutes and no more than a couple of positions in the race. After the race he then came to the Loctite service point where the Charlies re-patched the hole and with more time at disposal, made a cleaner reparation. The driver was extremely thankful for the product. It saved him a lot of time.

The following day, knowing that the new stage would be 150Km of cactus and trees, he returned in order to improve the resistance towards impact with thorns, by applying our plastic repair products and gass fiber. Tomorrow we will know from him if the reinforced tank could survive against the harsh environment.

Sponsored Driver Miran Stanovnik (#17, SVN) is doing really well at this dakar. Although he lost a couple of positions compared to the first 5 Stages, he still is in the top 25 bikers after the 7th stage of today.

Rally Dakar 2009, originally uploaded by dunerider70.

Dakar happens ones a year only. And it’s OK like this as life as a Charlie at the Dakar is not something anybody can stand for more than one month.A typical day for a Loctite Charlie (and for a press officer as myself) at the Rally Dakar 2009 starts early in the morning

7:00 am - wakeup and packing. The tent has to be disassembled. The Garbage disposed. Although it seems a simple task to do, the walksleeping state due to 3 hours of sleep,makes everything more difficult.

8:00 am - The bus to the airport is waiting. Together with the other (sleeping) colleagues from other teams, team managers and partners start their journey toward the (military) airport. Not a lot of talking is going on. Slowly we all wakeup.

9:00 am - For those who have not waken up, the Hercules C130 of the Argentinan Armed forces will do the rest. Demetrio, Jean and Celio describe this experience more dreadful than washing themselves the dirtiestand coldest shower they have found at the bivouac.

11:00 am - We land and a Bus transfers us to the Bivouac, which at this time of the day is almost empty. Nearly at the same time, the drivers have brought the Loctite truck by motowrway and piste to the bivouac.

12:00 pm - The Charlies start to work. The truck has to be positioned, the toolboxes unloaded. The generator to be started. While I am at the media Center looking for information and news, and finding out the position of the competitors we follow in the bivouac, the Charlies prepare the tent.

2:00 pm - The loctite service point is ready. Now there is time for a Lunch, assembling the tent and sleeping bag, a shower and a change of clothes before the first competitors start arriving

3:00 pm - We start working. Everybody has a task to do and the day gets busier and busier the more competitors arrive to the Bivouac. The first ones to arrive are the Motorbikers, and the most freuent reparations are plastic repairs. Falling at the Dakar is “normal” for bikers. That’s why many of them have kevlar or carbon fibre-reinforced fenders.

9:00 pm - Most of the competitors have arrived to the Bivouac. The Charlies are all busy working, and suggesting the use of products to whoever needs help.

1:00 am - Mostly at that time, thare are no more request of reparations. So we start reassembling all the toolboxes, tents, stands and working tools that need to be places in the truck. It takes about one hour.

2:00 am - The Charlies meet at the Bivouac’s Mensa, and have a beer together before they go to sleep. While the truck drivers wake up, start the Truck and begin their journey to the next bivouac.

2:30 am - The Charlies fall asleep instantly, without the need of any medicinal aid.

7:00 am - The hercules C130 is waiting for a new day…

This is the scenery we have found most of the times in the bivouacs until Jacobacci.