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.

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.