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Dakar January 1, 2010 – Start Day

Pre-race Excitement

Camera Check

Riding – No Camera

Riding with Camera

Well, nothing is ever easy at the Dakar, especially for competitor #73 Javier Pizzolito. A short time before he was to depart the Parc Ferme his bike suddenly caught fire. Of course this added a bit of excitement to Don’s day as he was parked very close to Pizzolito and had to push his bike away before the flames spread. Apparently it was so close that the flames were almost touching his leg. The fire department arrived fairly quickly and doused the flames before any other equipment was damaged. According to on-line sources the damage was fairly significant and Pizzolito will not be able to continue in this years Dakar.

After this bit of excitement Don started the race. In the accompanying pictures you can see his helmet camera getting a close inspection from the officials. We are not sure if Don was able to keep the camera on or not since some additional pictures show the camera in place, and others show it missing. We hope Don gets some good footage.

So he’s off. Today’s stage is only a 317 km liaison to Colon, so no real racing, it just gets them out of the city and ready for tomorrow.

Don made it into Colon by about 8PM. It was hot out there and hard to get around because the crowds were plugging up many of the roads. Don’s not to impressed with the food at the Bivouac, nor the swarms of mosquitoes that have shown up thanks to the recent rains.

Don is doing his road book now (around 9PM local time) and will then head to bed as he needs to be up at 4AM for a 5AM start.

Thanks to Brice and Mrs. Brice of ADVRider for the pictures on this page.

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