Today is beautiful, warm, sunny with a nice breeze.  Much nicer than I expected the heat to be!

Rick was at scrutineering until close to 9pm last night!  His GPS/sat phone computer wasn´t working and that´s a must have in order to do the race.  They had to work on that for some time and then he finally made it through … JUST.  They started to tell him it was too late to finish and he would have to come back today but, as usual, Rick managed to negotiate the completion last night.  Then he lost the team (who has our camera´s and most important … a bottle of wine!) and had to take a taxi back to the hotel and leave our car at the team house … which isn´t all that close! 

This morning we were headed for Florida Street (which is a big pedestrian area) and landed upon an amazing park that will be Cooper’s and my home until we had back to Vancouver.  It has a great playground for little people and lots of green space.  So we spent some time there and Cooper and Rick enjoyed the swings and slide.  This is a great city for the little ones …

Tonight we are heading back to the team house for Rick to do his final gear check and load his boxes into the trucks.  We also have a dinner where there will be lots of drivers and media so it should be interesting.  It seems as though lots of people want to talk to this crazy Canadian Dakar rookie!

This is actually Bonnie typing this, not Rick, so mind the technical errors.  Today Rick is at the race headquarters doing scrutineering.  It started at 1:40 and is meant to take quite a bit of time.  This after a VERY long day of travel yesterday and a late night prepping his bike!  Ahhhh, the life of one who has chosen to do the Dakar!  Buenos Aires is beautiful.  So far it has rained but I am okay with that as six and a half months pregnant and hot and humid Argentinian weather don´t work well for me!  Buenos Aires reminds me of Prague mixed with Beijing.  Tonight the three of us might actually get to do something together!

Merry Christmas to all!  I hope the holidays were wonderful and Santa brought everyone what they wished for.

I am now in final preparations for packing up all of my essentials, I even braved the Boxing day sales at Futureshop this morning to pick up a few memory cards for my helmet cam.  My wife, son and I fly out to Argentina in the morning and I can’t believe the time has finally come.  I had my last physio session on Thursday and I should be in fine form for the start of the Dakar 2010 next Friday afternoon.

I will do my best to add a link to track my progress during the rally.  www.Dakar.com will have the tracking section on it by race day.  My race number is #127 so you can search it by that.  If the link works it will go directly to it but if not please look at Dakar.com

Cooper dreaming of Daddy racing...

Just a quick update.  I have sold many T-Shirts and the names will be printed soon for application on the bike.  Thank you for all of the support out there.

I will not be able to sell anymore shirts out of town as my time is very short now.  If you are local and can pick up I have shirts still available.  Come and Get em!

Dr. Kelly Lefaivre and my smelly leg

I had my cast removed on December 4th after five and a half weeks.  My Doc. said it has healed well and with training and physio I will be ready to race.   Thanks Dr. Lefaivre.

Dec 4th. Cast is off!

So i need to tell you what a pain it is to try and prepare yourself mentally for the Dakar when all you can do is hobble around.  I couldn’t even get my self a cup of coffee.  Everything I tried to do turned into an ordeal so most of the time I just didn’t do what I had planned.  The good news is that I actually lost a few pounds because I couldn’t get to the fridge.

I have started training on a quick recovery process.  I will be in the gym with a trainer at least twice a week and at physio once plus every day that I am not with a trainer I am in the pool swimming laps.  I think I’ll be in better shape than I had planned originally.

Bonnie and Cooper

The best news is that my Wife and son are now going to join me in Argentina for the start of the race.  My wife will be about 6 months pregnant so it will be tough for her to chase around our two year old but I am glad she can make it.  Her Obstetrician has given her the green light.  I might just have an Argentinian baby girl…

I will have family watching at the end also.  My Dad and his wife Iliana will be flying into Buenos Aries on January 5th and will do a little tango before watching me blaze into the finish on the 16th.  It will be great to see my biggest sponsor and reluctant motorcycle supporter there at the finish.

Please take a look at my photos page to see some really great photos of the training from this year and the bike I will be riding.

SO, I had a great time in Morocco.  You know, a day of rally riding then the next day I learned motorcycle acrobatics.   After 2 helicopter rides, 2 ambulance rides and 4 flights over 48 hours I made it home to my family!

Silly me, I was having a great second day until about 2 hours in and I was checking and rechecking my roadbook on a off track section.  When I looked up there was a mound of Camel Grass.  I was too close to turn so I laid on the gas, apparently the wrong move.  My back wheel shot me up in the air over the bars and I landed head first and then on to my heels.  Thanks to my neck brace I do not have any neck or spine injuries.  The bad news is that I broke my left fibula.

Today I had an appointment with my Ortopedic Surgeon Dr. Kelly LeFaivre who I knew from high school.  She had some really great news.  The thigmy whatsut is not cracked and my ligimundios are fine also(Pardon my non medical lingo).  Only my Fibula was broken and my ego.  She will reassess in 3 weeks and it looks like I can have my cast off at that point to give me 4 weeks to recover before the Dakar.  What a relief!

This is the last few days before I head out to the UK to catch a flight to Morocco.  I will be travelling with my brother in law Peter from Brighton to Marrakech by aircraft and then we will try to figure out the local bus system with a bag full of gear.  Should be a blast.

The Morocco rally starts scrutenneering on Saturday October 24th so I just need to be there by then.  The race will start on Sunday bright and early and I am hoping I can figure out the labrinth of tasks before I get going.  There are Iritack GPS units that only give you a heading to follow, Sentinel sirens to keep you safe, The road book to guide you, odometer that must be calibrated and then there is  the bike to make sure that it is functioning properly.

I will be riding with Team Desert Rose and they are renting me a KTM 525 XC-W that is almost identical to my Dakar bike.  They are also providing team mechanical assistance and a mighty fine tent to sleep in.  I understand the hotel is only 25 Euros a night so I may go soft and get a bed…

I will attempt to have someone link a page to the website to track my progress so keep looking back.  If all else fails watch the official sight at marocco rally website or www.npo.fr/maroc2009/

The day the dream started on the Road To The Rally.

In a Guinness induced conversation I outlined my plans to my friends Mark and Susan Stephenson.  At the time it was the start of a dream but now two and a half years later I am only a few short months away from the start of the rally.

I had no idea of what I was really attempting to do, how I would pay for it and most of all how to train for such an event.  Most of my riding had been on the street so the daunting task of learning enduro type riding was distant on the horizon.

2008 Ironman Canada

I tend to jump feet first into everything that I do and this was no exception.  In 2002 I quit smoking and proceeded to train for the Ironman Canada Triathlon.  I was a three McDonald’s meals and a pack of cigarettes a day type of person until I met my wife Bonnie.  She is extremely athletic and guided me to the healthier life.  In 2003 I completed my first Ironman in 12hours, 23minutes.  Subsequently I have raced Ironman two more times in 2005 and 2008.  The only Triathlon I had completed before Ironman was a small sprint event at UBC called My First Triathlon.

When I decided to race the Dakar I did the same thing, I jumped right in.  Why race a smaller event if I can go ahead and race the biggest in the world, the Mount Everest of off road motorcycle racing.