Toby Price flying!

[bexrbetter]

Sorry, not aviation but though you may want a report on our own Toby Price at the Dakar, the world's toughest off road event that manufacturers spend tens of millions to win. To the shock of the World, Toby Price won it in 2016, that's the motorcycle section. 2017 he was challenging for the lead until a crash put him out, and a badly broken leg.

 

2018; Bad first day for all the KTM riders as the very deep sand dunes did not suit their bikes, but Toby managed to hold 10th place, 6;40 seconds down.

 

Now the end of the 3rd day and Toby has ridden supremely and fastest of all the bikes, and was in the lead of day 3, and about 3rd overall. He fell off once, and his navigational map got damaged, was hard to read as well as his drink bottle broke so he dehydrated towards the end of the day. This cost him time and he fell back to 3rd fastest time for the 230kms, and is now in 4th place overall, about 3 minutes back.

 

I know this ain't aviation, but this is an Australian who is the best rider in the World in this arena, and you should be proud! It is the largest watched/followed single sporting event in the World.

 

 

A good watch if you want to know more about the World's most famous Australian at this moment ..

 

 

 

[Methusala]

Being followed on SBS before the 630 news this week. The greatest reality show ever! Recommend.

 

 

[Guy s]

Have always enjoyed watching documentaries on the Dakar and only for the fit and toughest me thinks and the dedication that goes with it to excel.

 

Good luck Toby and well done on his past performances.

 

 

[adrian222]

Rankings - Dakar

[bexrbetter]

Damn, he's fallen back today, consistently on each stage, so there's some issue.

 

15th and 13 minutes back, but, believe it or not, that is still very much in the hunt if everything goes well.

 

Yay! Just read; The issues were deep sand like day 1 that he had issues with, he just isn't used to it and fell into some deep holes getting stuck, and by the day's end he is now in 6th just 10 minutes behind.

 

"Just 10 minutes" you might ask? The Dakar with 10 days to go, 10 minutes is nothing.

 

 

[adrian222]

Look what happened to last years winner and the leader up until today, out with a back injury.

 

Yes there is a long way to go.

 

Nothing worse than getting sand in your pants.

 

 

[PA.]

Nothing worse than getting sand in your pants.

Suffer in your jocks.

 

 

[bexrbetter]

YAY!

 

After day 6, (rest day yesterday) Toby's in 3rd place, now just 9 minutes down!

 

Promising news is they are heading towards faster and harder surface stages now which is where Toby excels.

 

 

[WJSYBSU]

"I know this ain't aviation"

 

Not aviation related??? I beg to differ..

 

This guy gets more flight time than a lot of "pilots" I know. :)

 

I saw him compete in the Finke a couple years ago, was hard to tell if he was flying the bike and landing occasionally or riding and flying it when it suited him.

 

Best of luck to a genuinely great bloke and an incredible competitor.

 

 

[bexrbetter]

He's in about 5th or 6th at the moment, but has fallen back a little, 13 minutes now.

 

Amazingly that is not only still in with a great chance, not a single expert will put money on anyone in the top ten who are all within 15 minutes of the leader not winning, this event is just that hard.

 

 

[bexrbetter]

He's in about 5th or 6th at the moment, but has fallen back a little, 13 minutes now.

Just to show you how variable it is, Toby is now in 4th just 7 mins, 30 secs behind now, and he was only 3rd fastest on today's stage! Great he made up 6 minutes to the lead in one day though.

 

Tomorrow's stage is cancelled due to heavy rain making the stage impassable (must be pretty serious to be impassable for these guys), that isn't in Toby's favour as stamina is one of his strengths, because it gives the other guys a day's rest, as well as allowing only 4 more days rather than 5 to make up that 7 minutes.

 

Talking about stamina, in 2016 a stage's end was cancelled just after Toby, who was first bike on the road, left the checkpoint, he was the ONLY bike rider to do the full extra 200 kms that day (he wasn't happy either!).

 

 

[Erik Snyman]

Sorry, not aviation but though you may want a report on our own Toby Price at the Dakar, the world's toughest off road event that manufacturers spend tens of millions to win. To the shock of the World, Toby Price won it in 2016, that's the motorcycle section. 2017 he was challenging for the lead until a crash put him out, and a badly broken leg.2018; Bad first day for all the KTM riders as the very deep sand dunes did not suit their bikes, but Toby managed to hold 10th place, 6;40 seconds down.

 

Now the end of the 3rd day and Toby has ridden supremely and fastest of all the bikes, and was in the lead of day 3, and about 3rd overall. He fell off once, and his navigational map got damaged, was hard to read as well as his drink bottle broke so he dehydrated towards the end of the day. This cost him time and he fell back to 3rd fastest time for the 230kms, and is now in 4th place overall, about 3 minutes back.

 

I know this ain't aviation, but this is an Australian who is the best rider in the World in this arena, and you should be proud! It is the largest watched/followed single sporting event in the World.

 

[ATTACH=full]53369[/ATTACH]

 

A good watch if you want to know more about the World's most famous Australian at this moment ..

 

Thanks for the update, Bex. Always loved the Dakar, but am sort of missing the "old" Dakar days, with the BMW 800 GS being the king of the pack. When "Paris to Dakar" meant exactly that.

Good stuff.

 

Erik in Oz.

 

 

[bexrbetter]

Well the fat lady has sung and Toby came in 3rd, an extremely respectable result, but ...

 

For those who don't know, Toby turned up the wrong river bed 4 or 5 days ago, and lost 50 minutes.

 

He finished less than 30 minutes behind. Still he has sealed his place as one of the World's great Rally riders, maybe next year!