Liaison 450 km Special 165 km Liaison 396 km Total 1011km
Six hours rest were planned, but than we had to start much earlier.
The drivers had only two hours for resting and than they had to start again. The second part of the marathon stage waited. Gilles just erected his tent and had to tear it down again. At 11 p.m. the two Touratech drivers started for the 1011 Kilometer stage to Dakar.
Not funny. It is raining and it really is a long stage.
Michael has lost his front fender. with this weather its hard because all the mud will fligh dirctly into his face.
The special was quite with no extraordinary problems.
Michael and Gilles reached Dakar without any more problems with the motorbikes.
Gilles was welcomed by a lot of friends. For a snack they brought him cheese from France!
Tomorow Michael and Gilles have to ride the last 69 kilometers around Lac Rose.
Visitors in the night
Dakar:
Alfie Cox
A little fan
Meoni
our rally bikes
Press information center
Gilles and his wishbone injury
Special 457 km Liaison 4 km Total 461km
The storm was not as hard as yesterday. But it was constantly raining on the way to Kiffa, the end of the first part of the marathon stage.
It was 5 month ago that it had rained in Kiffa. In january rain is very seldom.
The arrival of Motorbikes was
planned for 2 p.m.. At 3 p.m. no one had arrived.
Lot of the competitiors could not finde the first CP. This was a hidden one, and not in the roadbook. It has been decided that missing the secret PC1, situated at the 129 kms point, will mean a two-hour penalty.
Michael and Gilles lost about two hours searching for the time controll. the first competitors arrived at 4 p.m. and it is still raining.... It looks as if the rally would end like it had began in France: in the mud.
When Gilles came in it was dark.
Michel came a little later.
Didier, who gave up yesterday can help us with the service.
Our cars and the truck are stuck somewhere. They cannot manage to arrive in Kiffa.
Today at 11.p. m. in the night Michael and Gilles will have to start again to make the second part of the Maratho stage: 1011 km. We wish them all the best!!!
The last night the wind began to blow. It was raining from time to time. We did not know if TSO would start the special. But they did and the remaining participants started to the loop stage. For the motorcycles it were only 62 starters. The rest did not even finish the stage of yesterday. The Organisation decided to allow those who arrive at the bivouac before 18.00 to restart tomorrow for the stage beween Tichit and Kiffa.
Until CP 1 the stage was "easy" to drive. but there was always a little sandstorm. It grew stronger and when gilles reached the CP2 you could only see up to 200 meters.
This day the GPS was not allowed. Activating the GPS would have costed 6 hours penalty.
The Stage from CP 2 to CP 3 was only one picture in the roadbook: 32° and 170 Kilometers. Gilles was lucky and found CP3 at once. Michael had to search for it for a while.
Both came in before sundown.
Didier also reached Tichit. He came with organisation truck, and with his defect motor ( he used the production motor with 34kw / 50 PS ). Unfortunately he is out of the race.
The sandstorm grew worse, the press tent flew away. We hope for better wether tomorrow!
Yesterday it was very hard. But today even harder.
The best arrived about 3 p.m. but after the first 4 drivers we had to wait very long for the next.
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Tichit is a little semi-derelicted oasis with a lot
of palms surrounded by high dunes in the southeast of Mauritanie.
One of
the most beautiful stages, very complete: stony tracks, crossings,
offtrack camelgrass...
Until sundown only few drivers reached Tichit. The only driver of TOURATECH was Gilles.
He came in two hours
and 38 minutes past Nani Roma. Shortness of fuel costed 20 minutes. No Problems with the bike.
Michael arrived at 7 p.m. and also our cars with Yvon, Guy and Laurent.
Michael said,
this day was even worse than yesterday. But his motor did not show any
spluttering any more.
Now we are waiting for Didier who fighted with high oil consumption, but we have no news.
Some notices of Herbert. There are until now no more news (22.08 p.m )
" 1:00 p.m. Francois had a technical breakdown, but here in Tidjika I cannot
get more actual information.
Here in Tidjika it is very warm and it
is a village were nothing ever happens.
After I got out of the plane I
testet the famous douche: Four knurls stuck into the sand, the walls are
old rice-bags and you can find a bucket full of water. 
Now I am
sitting here, showered and clean and wait for news of Francois.
3:09 p.m.
The first competitors arrive in the camp. No
news! There is no chance to get data from the CP. later i will send more
information!"
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Michael is preparing his Roadbook. Every evening at the briefing there are comments on the Roadbook from the organisation. |
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Second part of today info: 23:30 h:
Michael came in two hours before sundown. It was very hard!
Deep sand, dunes, stony
along a canyon. And his moter was
not ok. Sometimes it stopped, than again run, was spluttering.
Michael: "This were the 250 most dangerous kilometers of my motorbike carreer."
Looking for the trouble the
computer found problems with the the throttle valve and the fule pump. The
mechanics changed it.
Gilles had problems with his gearing transmission.
Didier
came in without problems. But just before sundown
Tired and happy.
And than you can hear the sad story of Francois.The rear swingarm of his bike is defect. He had to give up in front of the first CP.
This aluminium swingarm is our largest problem at the dakar. we testet it under real conditions and in the laboratories together with the lokal university.
We will have to react immediately. Now we will change the swingarm.
Liaison 33 km Special 366 km Liaison 5 km Total 404km
Herbert
Schwarz: "We startet at 6:30 a.m. with Allain and David to the special stage.
I was pressed into the Nissan Patrol and we drove 40 kilometers into the dunes. There in front
of a little village we found a good place to take pictures."
Francois came early, he managed to pass some concurrents: very fast!
Michael and Gilles were quite fast also, but Didier ...we were waiting.
But suddenly with one hour delay he came in a hurry! He had to do some repairs.
The drivers of the TOURATECH-Teams said, that it was one of the most wonderful landscapes of
the dakar...I am surprised, that they are able see it...
All drivers were quite fast. Especially Gilles with his just healing wishbone manages to make a wonderful race.
Evening mood:
cooking in the beduine tent and campfire.
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Briefing with Hubert Auriol and Patrick Zaniroli:
Patrick warned the drivers to drive very careful. Smooth Sand and lots of dunes.
Michael looked very weared, he had not had very often the chance to train in the dunes.
Gilles lost his way in the dunes and stuck in the sand up to his seat. Because of his injury he could free himself. "Luckily" Didier go lost at the same point, so they could help each other. .
Tomorrow is rest day. Thomas came with the plain to help with the service.
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Michael Griep now has his new motor, he now uses a production motor; yesterday night everything was changed by the mechanics. |
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This night at 1 a.m. the team started.
The Xenon auxiliary headlight was one of the favourites.
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After 350 km Liaison there was a break of 3 hours and a breakfast.
The first part is winding and sandy then becomes very rapid. And it has a lot of sandy and dusty wholes.
Michael Griep has an average speed of 102 km/h in the special stage, Francois was even faster.
A positiv evaluation for the Nav-Assistant: the drivers like this convenience very much.
Another positiv announcement: The new developed airbox works very fine: even with this dusty stage the dustfilters were not very congested.
Any more positive news? Yes: today no repairs necessary - only new tires and routine service.
Herbert Schwarz with his mobile communication equipment. Nera GmbH gave us the "World Communicator" to guaranty a world wide " Global Area Network" (GAN). |
Satelliten-Telephone, digitalcamera and PC are part of the equipment too |
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| Digitale pictures and information are sent daily to the "Touratech-Nerve-Center" . | ||
First of the two marathon stages.The drivers started at 5 a.m. Steffen, Wolfgang, Yvon and our french mechanic Laurent were workin on the bikes till 1:30 in the night.
Michael needed the help of the Truck Batterie to start his Motorbike.
Picture: Michael Pietsch
Picture: Michael Pietsch
The road today was stony, fast and dangerous. In Tan Tan was a compulsory break.
In this break the mechanics worked on the bikes. Today we changed the motor of Michaels bike: in the last nights we changed the head gasket and of sensors but we did not find the reason for the loss of power.
Steffen works almost around the clock.
It not easy under this conditions and takes more time than expected.
For Steffen it is not the first rally he works on, but it is a new dimension. But he really is a "freak" and this helps a lot to get through.
Tomorrow morning at 1:00 und 1:30 a.m. the drivers will start for the second part of the marathon stage....
739 km lang with 370 km Special
The first stage in africa was very difficult. The track: rapid, stony sometimes jumpy leads the competitiors towards the Sandy and deserted zones of the south. The Erg Chebby has the highest dunes of morocco and the competitors crossed it.
One of those "jumpy tracks" catched Francois Flick. He destroyed his exhaust, it was dented so much that the motor could not run any more.
Gilles Algay helped Francois and the through away the exhaust completly, and they could start again.
Frederic Moncassin had a larger problem: his aluminium swing arm broke. He had to give up.
We will examine the swing arm very well!
More and more we see, that this participation for at dakar will bring us a lot of experience and will help us to develop and to build better and even more durable products.
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Teammeeting |
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 Horst: Informations about the route of tomorrow. |
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 Herbert Schwarz dellivers pictures and stories. | |
Euromaster
Wolfgang changing tires
Dunes...
..Results...
Steffen aat work.
At least we are in Africa!
Very wet here also! But a wonderful landscape.
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It was rainy again in spain, and it was very cold. So the whole team tried to avoid any faults and drove very carefully
... but still they can do their jokes....Didier Py:
Some muddy drivers. ..This evening the team will be in Rabat in Africa. Hopefully the weather in Africa
will be better, so we can present more sand and dust than mud.
Andrea Mayer
Lundmark mit der 1150 BMW
Brucy auf KTM (No.11)
Bueno auf KTM 660
Gilles
Michael
Bernd
The interest of the public was very high here, a lot of people on the slope.
Michael Griep had to deal with Motorproblems and Fred Moncassin had problems. More information later.
Francois Flick was very fast: Position 16 and Didier Py: position 26. Gilles Algay made position 36. He had his collarbone broekn 2(!) Weeks ago and still suffers, our best wishes go to him.
The Touratech-Team is still of big interest to the media.
Ein Fahrer des Moto 2 Teams
KTM
Liaison 82 km Special 6 km Liaison 510 km Total 598km
Now they finished the special stage:
Only little problems: starting problems and a little cable fire. But a large interest of press: Our drivers had to give several interviews.
Hubert Auriol talking to Francois Flick
28.12.01
Yesterday at about 8 p.m The Touratech bikes entered the stage....
No.22 Francois Flick
No.40 Frederic Moncassin
No.41 Michael Griep
No.36 Didier Py
Briefing
Participants at the briefing
The enthusiastic public in Arras.
Frederic and his Touratech-BMW : always in the center of media attraction.
It was a lazy day for the Touratech Team. The Rally bikes are in the Parc Fermé and wait.
The Service truck was inspected once more and the spare parts were checked. A lot of warm clothing is missing: Rainer and Reinhold will go to Arras and bring the missing parts.
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Farizio Meoni and his KTM.
Today the KTM Team passed the scrutineering. They have a lot of Touratech equipment on board as well. |
 Erverybody uses the NAV-Assistant and this new "TT-double-mount" for two GPSs. | |
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| The Spanish Team MOTO 2 (riding TOURATECH F650 rallye) | |
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Andrea Mayer with her KTM - equipped with Nav-Assistant and GPS-mount.
You see: not erverything, which is bright yellow ist a Touratech BMW. |
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There was some time to meet old friends:Jutta Kleinschmidt was the first, together with Michael Griep
to use the Tripmaster IMO 100 R on the Dakar rally on her KTM Bike. Jutta still uses our products, she is a fan of Touratech QV. |
We were not sure in the beginning. The srutineers were not satisfied with the Nav-Assistant. Altough we did the requested modifications and eliminated the compass function. After some discussions further adjustments were done, to assure the scrutineers that it is not possible to reimplement the compass function.
Than we headed back to the scrutineering
Francois, Frederic und Gilles.
The whole teamWe wish good luck!
25.dec.2001
This Morning at 10 a clock the rally-truck and two transporters startet towards Arras, the starting point of the dakar rallye. Tomorrow is the technical approval at 1 p.m.
Many Thanks!
Without the help of many people and companies it would be impossible to set up our rally teams („Team TOURATECH Factory“ und „Team Allier Dynamique Touratech“)
Special assistance we got from:
Mr. Günter Simon, Elkamet Plastics Technology Pty Ltd
Mr. Flammer, Elkamet Plastics Technology Pty Ltd
Mr. Detlef Becker, Castrol
Mr.
Adalbert Graczyk, Castrol
Mr.
Richard Penazzi, Magura
Mr.
Yamasaki, RK-Excel
Mr.
Stefan Engers, VAUDE
Mr. Nils Thorsten Hinte, NERA GmbH.
Sincere thanks are given to:
Mr. André Sell for programming the injection.
Mr. Diehl-Thiele for supplying clothes and gloves.
Mr. Gottfried Michels (Team Pami) for the motor-tuning
Mr. Hannes Kronbach for perfect welding in steel and aluminum.
Mr. Hubert Hoffmann for overall adjustment of the chassis.
Mr. Ludwig Hofbauer ( Zupin) for assistance in organizing of shocks and stabilisors.
Mr. Michael von Gersdorff for his work on NAV-Assistants and elektronics.
Mr. Steffen Müller, who made it possible to help us for one week building the rally motorcycles.
Mr. Thomas Föge for logistics.
Mr. Tino Kraus for messenger services, becaus all official express services failed.
Motorrad Grüneberg; they organized all original BMW spare parts for a good price.
KTM for delivery of water-coolers for a fair price.
..... to all TOURATECH – Staff, who almost ignored christmas just to help for the team:
Bernd Lämmerhirt, Christian Kraus, Clemens Matejka, Diana Spiegelberg, Dieter Bürger, Eugen Schanz, Günter Emminger, Heike Armbruster, Heike Bogdanski, Jan Fitzke, Janko Mädel, Jo Glaser, Klaus Vogel, Lilli Leisgen, Lydie Barth, Marcus Vosseler, Maria Maier, Matthias Hirt, Melanie Hess, Michaela Ganter, Moritz Lindheimer, Oleg But, Rainer Sunderer, Reinhold Kaiser, Robert Büchler, Simone Feuerstein, Steffen Schleinitz, Tanja Ceschan, Thomas Schmider, Tina Burkart, Torsten Raschke, Werner Sachs, Wolfgang Banholzer
and thanks to all immediate family of our staff, who were neglected since a long time.
Many thanks for your support.
Herbert Schwarz und Jochen Schanz
We want to say thank you to all of our staff.
We are very proud of the work they did in order to achieve our goal at the
Rallye Arras - Madrid - Dakar. There were many evenings before, were we worked late, and also yesterday, on a sunday evening, you could have seen many busy hands working on the motorbikes, loading the truck, writing lists and many, many more...
 Lilli and Robert loading the Truck |
 Wolfgang programming the GPS. |
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 Michaela carries spare parts |
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 Our truck! |
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 Drivers and mechanics: working in the garage |
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 Robert in front of our "mobile spare part stock" |
 Steffen doing the final check |
 Michael and Thomas doing the fine tuning |
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We would like to use our " Nav-Assistant " at the Dakar race.
Specially designed for the MLR Valsat, the official GPS for the rallye.
The Nav-Assitant is a direction indicator which works with the GPS data or like a compass (When the GPS is defect or you are driving less than 20 kilometers).
Iit is essential in rally sports. It is build in into our rally machines
Now the official rally organizer TSO gave a note to some special (!) teams that the nav-assistant is not allowed any more!
Luckily we got this message from another team and we now have the possibility to redo the Nav-Assitant and for this reason get through the technical approval process.
The brillant functionality
- two in one: GPS-direction indicator and magnetic compass -
is lost now. It remains the direction indicator, which allows the driver to monitor the course from the corner of his eye and he needs not turn his eyes away from the track.
Michael Griep
Francois Flick
Frederic Moncassin
Didier Py