Pavey's Transorientale update - 18 June 2008
Stage number: 7 - Cancelled
900km laison
Result on stage 6: 9th
Position overall: 10th
Hi! It was not a good night last night. We turned up at the bivouac late at night to find only two organisers there. No sleeping bags, no fuel, no information, nothing. I found out by text from some mates in the UK that there had been an accident and obviously all the organisers were sorting that out. I need to find out more before I comment on what happened so I'm going to try and have a chat with the people in charge of the rally tomorrow morning. It doesn't sound good though.
We had to fend for ourselves last night because it was a marathon stage and we had no outside assistance from the support vehicles. Linley was hundreds of klicks away with the truck. We had to go 30km into town to get petrol. We had no information, no kit and not a lot of food. Eventually, at about 1am a truck turned up with some equipment, luckily my sleeping bag was on it. But not everyone's bag turned up so there was a bit of male bonding going on last night to keep warm. Sleeping under the stars in only a sleeping bag is pretty cold, even at this time of year.
We still had no info this morning so they held us at the bivouac. Then at about 11am a helicopter turns up with the head of the rally in it and he tells us we've got to ride 900kms to the next bivouac. So no special today, just 900ks of hard road riding, nice. It's been really tough for all concerned. After 600km I stopped briefly in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, but that was a quick splash and dash then back in the saddle for the rest of the 300km. I've just arrived in the full bivvy and it's almost 1am, so three hours sleep, then we crack on again.
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