Rider Blogs
10 - 11 October 2009
Today involved last minute preperation as well as plenty of eating and relaxing to store and conserve energy for the start of the event tomorrow. I was fortunate enough to walk the technical sections of the special tests with my male trophy team counterpart and fellow Yamaha rider Stefan Merriman, who is a multi world Champion. He along with the rest of the Aussie senior trophy team members helped me choose and plan my lines through the difficult parts of the test. One of them which has some dangerous drop offs and technical step up.
The conditions are quite similar to Australia with the tests set among pine trees and eucalypts, So I hope to do well for the team.
Alison Parker
Satuday night was opening ceremony, it was the absolute most amazing, exciting fantastic moment of my life so far. We marched down the street of Figuera da Foz in front of the crowd proudly sporting our Wellard Aussie Team uniforms and waving our Australian flags. My face hurt from smiling so much. There were people with camera's everywhere and we gave the onlookers little koala's that we had brought from home.
At the end of the street there was a stage set up that every country marched up on as our names were read out to the crowd. I was soooooo excited!! I was laughing and was very close to tears. My name was the last to be read out and I cheered so hard it was awesome.
The big day is tomorrow. Ok the first of six big days is tomorrow. I'm all ready to go except for my time cards that tell me what time to start and how long I have to get to control points, they are being sorted as I write. I'm not on the same minute as my Wellard Aussie team mates but we are all close. As they will let three bikes go every minute I can't wait to see who I will be spending my day with. I hope they speak English!!!
Jemma Wilson
Back for more walking today! Jemma and I took to taking turns in driving to practice being on the other side of the road. Not easy in a country full of mad people where everyone driveswhere ever they want anyway, and every car plays chicken with you. We made it safely to the first test after a bit of rally driving and hand brake turns. The test consisted of an awesome rocky hill, so hopefully it holds up well I can't wait to ride it.
Next we walked another sand test with lots of jumps and hardpack sand, it is definately going to be great. After a scary drive back to the Pit Paddock we just got back in time for the official rider photo's, we were looking sharp. From there we went and checked out this special test which seemed like a rice field that they had drained the water out of the day before. It is definately going to get messy in there!
That night we had the opening ceremony where we marched up the road along the beachfront with all the locals cheering and trying to get all the stuff we were handing out. We all had a heap of little koala's to hand out, they loved it!! They had Portugese people dressed in their National costume in front of each country holding a sign saying our country's name. It was pretty funny as Argentina was in front of us but none of the riders turned up! After the march we hung around for a bit then went into town for dinner and celebrations. Great Day!!
Jacqui Jones
9 October 2009
Today marked the start of the official proceedings with administration and technical inspections taking place with our race numbers freshly added to our clean bikes the opportunity arose for our Wellard team photos. We must have looked really good as lots of onlookers also took photos of us.
Alison Parker
Today was very interesting. First up we had our Wellard photo shoot, which proved to provide us with lots of attention particularly from the KTM riders (I'm not sure from which country) Who could not wait to jump into the photo with us. From there we had to be back by 2.30 pm for the Team Australia shoot, sign on and scrutineering so we decided to walk one of the special tests in between.
After following the cars GPS for an hours swampland drive, we realised we were probably in the wrong place. With a "wing it" attitude we ended up getting to the test within the next hour. Not exactly a fuel efficient way of doing the track walk. When we got there it was awesome the track wound it's way through what seemed like ancient ruins and made a fantastic special test.
After about 45 minutes and sore calves we headed back to the Pit Paddock to do the administration side of the event and then have our bikes scrutineered and secured in the Parc Ferme. It was soon time to head back to the hotel for our recovery session with the team trainer. It was then we realised we had a five seater car and six people, on thing we have learned in Portugal is "Anything goes" Being the smallest Jem and I took turns of jumping into he boot which was the only space left which was ok, just a bit bumpy.
We have got the official ISDE photo shoot and opening ceremony tomorrow (I can't wait). Well got to go Jem and I are late for our recovery session. So stay tuned!!
Jacqui Jones
Today was a lot of fun. We started off with the usual brekkie at the hotel then headed of to our second home at the Pit Paddock. We did our Wellard Team photo's with the bikes in front of the massive Wellard banner that is on the side of our container. Just the thee of us, then the families and finished off with Management Peter, Dale and Liam/ We also had a few spectators join in which was really cool. We are quite the attraction over here. Ha,Ha!
After the photos we all headed off to walk some special tests. eight of us loaded into a seven seater and headed off and unfortunately ended up in a swamp. Once we decided not to listen to the stupid nav man anymore we found the test. It was hard pack (not sand for a change) a little rocky and surrounded by old ruins. Once we had walked the track as we did not have time to find another one we took the time to play around a little and took heaps of photos in an old, old fallen down castle. It was amazing.
Last thing was sign on. I am number 443 Jac is 441 and Alison is 442. As the let three bike go every three minutes I hope we are all on the same minute. All our number backgrounds are pink!!! We then got some more Australian Team photos and did scrutineering before all our bikes went into the impound area.
Our last adventure was putting six people into a five seater (sound familiar) and heading into town to find a chemist. Thankfully the lady spoke English although not my twenty thousand words a minute Aussie that I speak and I got my cold and flu tablets "Yay"
Jemma Wilson
8 October 2009
I definitely had a great time today doing all the bike testing. There is a small test track that has seen a lot of laps over the last few days. Needless to say it was very rough!! But my WRF handled it well. We ended up making our own little Australian practice track up the road a little which was fine until the local police turned up and moved us on, even though it was still a great days riding.
I'm struggling with the language barrier, I came across a Czeck rider on the side of the road pushing his bike and it was after lots of "do you speak English" hand signals I learned he was out of petrol.
I am looking forward to tomorrow when we put the bikes into the Parc Ferme and get ready for the opening ceremony on Saturday evening.
Jacqui Jones
After having a look at the special tests today and riding my Yamaha WRF 250 on the official test track I'm really looking forward to getting out there and racing with my Wellard Australian team mates. The climate and terrain appear ideal for the ISDE and I think we can really perform well.
Alison Parker
Our Yamaha WR250F's are finally all sorted and look fancy with their new italian graphics. We test rode them today on some crazy whooped out sand track. It was really awesome to see the other countries trophy riders testing as well. So far we have walked a couple of tests but are planning to get a couple more done today. We will soon be doing our administration and tech inspection before the bikes go into the Parc Ferme.
Jemma Wilson