Fransua Rachmann: Two members of UAE CC participated in Desert X Round 3 and 4 held over two days in the Arjan region of Abu Dhabi (8th / 9th January 2010)

The races can be treated as a “mini Desert Challenge” because the riders had to ride on Friday, camp overnight in the desert and ride on the Saturday again. It’s a great way of getting used to the atmosphere and the setting of the big race that is less then 3 months away.

Friday 8 January was a very technical 175 km race of 25 km laps through mostly rocky terrain. There were a few short places to open up the throttle and get some speed through flat camel grass sections, but the dunes and rocky parts kept speeds pretty low.

Paul Anselmo had a great race in Round 3, doing 6 of the 7 laps before the winners crossed the line the 7th time. Paul finished 16th out of 24 riders in the 450 Pro Class. Fransua Rachmann completed 5 laps and finished 18th in the same class.

The race on Friday finished around 4pm and the riders started relaxing and the smell of camp fires soon filled the quiet desert air. Everyone that wanted to compete in the race on Saturday had to be already registered by Friday night.

There was a festive atmosphere around the camp in anticipation for the next day’s race, but most riders went to bed early because Round 4 was supposed to start at 8:15am and it was going to be 7 tough 30km laps in open desert.

The Saturday start was a bit delayed because of dense fog, but when the race did start it was clear that the terrain was going to be less challenging than the previous day. The race itself was still demanding, but the long flat sections made the going easy and the bit of technical areas with very soft dunes seemed less daunting with the prospect of a flat fast section a few kilometers away.

Paul unfortunately had bad luck in lap 3. Coming fast down a dune he could not avoid some rocks, bending his front wheel and breaking 2 spokes in the process. Unable to continue, he managed to ride slowly to the Start/Finish line and had to pull out of the race. I had a much better race then the previous day, finishing 6 laps and came 12th in the Open Pro class.

“The laps were longer then yesterday but it felt shorter with all the fast sections. I was lucky to follow a fast rider on the 2nd lap into open flat areas. He basically showed me the way to go. All the next laps I followed this route to avoid soft sand and big dunes in that section. It just shows that the Desert X is not just about speed, but also about good navigation. And that is a great way to think about it doing the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge too.”

The next rounds of the Desert X series will be held over 2 days again on 12 and 13 February.