Two test days in Vivaro, Italy, have completed the
preparation for the Lisbon Dakar Rally 2007.
With their sights set on next 6 January, the
Repsol KTM Team has concluded the pre-race tests
for the African event. Two days focussed on
preparing the engines, suspensions, etc. to have
the bikes ready with all the definitive
specifications for the race that will start in
Portugal on Epiphany. The tests have served to
finish-off the last technical aspects and to fine
tune the reliability of the KTM 690 Rally machine
that will be taking part this year at the
Lisbon-Dakar Rally, the same machine Marc Coma
used to clinch the Raid World Championship.
The riders have covered thousands of kilometres to
work in all directions needed to prepare a race as
the Dakar, i.e. setting the bikes, but also
practising navigation. Although the definitive
test will be the Dakar Rally as such, Marc Coma
considers the work carried out with his new
motorbike as very positive, a fact proven by the
five victories achieved in the five races he
entered this year. "Everything has worked out
perfectly well, it is actually impossible to do
better. We have won wherever we have raced and the
bike has always been working well. The
driveability has improved a lot and that will be
of really big help in such a long race as the
Lisbon-Dakar."
The test in Vívaro has also been the first contact
of Giovanni Sala with the new motorbike. After
testing the KTM Repsol with the competition number
3, Giò declared that "they have done a great job.
I like the result a lot because the bike is now
much more comfortable and that's something very
important when you have so many kilometres ahead
in a race like the Dakar. Although I still need to
continue testing on the sand to have a more
precise opinion, the agility and driveability are
noteworthy and I'm very happy about it."
The third member of the team, Jordi Viladoms, was
not able to take part in the tests, because he is
recovering from a little blow he had while testing
with the team one week ago in the northern part of
the country. The team doctor advised Viladoms to
have three days of rest to fully recover, and
therefore Viladoms did not take part in these last
tests.
To face this kind of race will full guarantees,
the team has been working in three directions:
First the physical and mental training, which is
carried out by each rider with a specific
physiotherapist; second the preparation of the
motorbike, focussing on the behaviour and the
reliability, carried out during the different
tests with the KTM specialists; and finally
navigation, which they have been working on with
the Team Manager, Jordi Arcarons. "To prepare the
race well, it is important not to forget any of
the many aspects involved, and I'm in charge of
helping them as much as possible with the
navigation. We've carried out a lot of tests
working with the road book, trying to pass
specific GPS points and looking for different
courses. It is an important work for the race,
considering that the philosophy of the
organisation is to make navigation prevail over
speed".
From now to January 6th, the only thing left to do
will be to keep the physical shape and to wait
patiently for the start of this adventure that was
started for the first time by Thierry Sabine
almost thirty years ago.
