The Great Escape Rally

[Pole]

The rally to me was rather difficult, several times my front wheel just dissapeared in the deep sand throwing me off the bike, over the bars
To make as much out of this event as possible you'd really need a very light competition / enduro bike with nothing but only necessary navigation add-ons ( like Stef's bike ).
My bike and other competiotor's LC4 Adventure were the heaviest amongst all bikes taking place in this event.
It was still great fun and one-off experience for me but for the next one I'd rethink if taking a fully-prep long distance rallye bike is a wise choice.
By the way if anyone fancy there are few more rallies held in Poland this year and me & Stef are all help

[slanty]

Right time to pick up where I left off and post up the last few details...

After the water crossing, the course for the rest of the afternoon was very deep loose sand and it was particularly difficult to ride:



Pole and I stuck together as much as we could for this stage and it was a good thing as every couple of miles one or other of us would end up with the front wheel buried in the sand or taking a tumble. We worked together to dig bikes out of deep sand and help pick up each others bikes... it's amazing how heavy they feel when muscles get tired As Pole mentioned earlier his bike was significantly heavier than mine and this weight proved to be a bit of burden in this stage. Unfortunately a combination of tired legs and the weight of the bike led to Pole having a big spill on the sand and he landed awkwardly and hurt his hip and leg. We stopped for a while to get some food and water and see if Pole's leg would recover but he could not put weight on it or bend it properly so we decided that we would return to the checkpoint and get medical assistance, so we limped the bikes carefully back to the nearest checkpoint.

When we got there we went to the officials tent to seek help:



They directed us to the ambulance station and Pole was examined by the medic who eliminated Pole from the rest of the rally due to the injury. Pole was disappointed but I guess it was the right thing because he could no longer change the gears without a lot of pain. The medic also gave Pole some pain killers in the form of suppositories but luckily Adrian and Marcin had brought along so more familiar and easy to use pain killers... beer and vodka... not surprising Pole opted for beer and vodka

That was the end of the rally for us, Pole out because of his medical disqualification and me because my tripmaster was broken (and unfortunately I couldn't follow Pole any more) so we watched on the Sunday morning as the final short sprint stage was completed and we realised that we had not done badly at all as only 5 bikes finished the rally. We ended up finishing 6 and 8 even when all the penalties for non completion were applied:


As you can imagine, we were surprised and delighted (even if our times were not very impressive )

Then we went to the closing ceremony and received our medals:


And there was a very pleasant surprise for Pawel He won the Fair Play Award for assisting Milosz when he flooded his bike with water:







Then we chatted with some of the other competitors and had some dinner before hitting the road for home. We were both exhausted but we were buzzing from the excitement of the rally, it really was amazing experience. We spent much of the 14 hour drive back talking about the rally... we had so much to talk over about the rally...

We spent months discussing and planning the trip, organising the bikes, buying parts and spares and tools, hiring vans and pushing ourselves as far as we could in terms of riding and physical endurance for the rally. It cost us a lot in time, money and effort all we got at the end was this cheap tacky medal:



But that cheap tacky medal is a prized possession for both of us and we wouldn't give it up for anything

The rally was absolutely amazing and something we will never forget. It was such an amazing experience, I would really recommend anyone who gets the chance to do something like this to grab the opportunity... you won't regret it. And if we can help in any way, Pole and I would be happy to assist anyone planning such a trip.

Here is a trailer of the rally made by Adrian:



And some other videos from other teams:





I hope you all enjoyed the ride report... thanks for all the supportive comments and posts

[phil w]

More great stuff and loved the clips, every time I seem to see that huge truck its about 4 inches off the arse of something, quite intimidating. Nice to see some Bowlers, love those, and the Jeeps look mad!! Are all bikes KTM!!! Well done to Pole for choosin the beer and vodka option

[todd5774]

Congratulations on finishing in 6th!!!!

And you had the cheek to enter the Tarennig at the weekend as a novice!!

Was nice to meet you again stef you must get out to a few more of the local rallies this year.

[slanty]

Congratulations on finishing in 6th!!!!

And you had the cheek to enter the Tarennig at the weekend as a novice!!

Was nice to meet you again stef you must get out to a few more of the local rallies this year.

Cheers Todd!

It was great to see you, Rob and Nick at the Tarrenig, it was a great day but I thought it was best to enter for just the 2 laps so I could see what these rallies are like. I'm gonna keep an eye out for the next rallies, I think I'll try the 3 laps next time...