Paris-Dakar Rally ------ CANCELLED!

Man, thats a lot to digest first thing in the morning.

Real sad state of affairs I must say. The terror group must be tickled pink that they managed to inadvertently disrupt such an event. I can only imagine that it will have large negative effects to the local economies over there.

 

Sad state of affairs stuka!

This is one of the last great motorcycles races left in the world. My personal favorite is the Isle of Man, which there has been talk about getting ride of it becasue it does not attract big names anymore.

BZ

 

ROFLMAO... too late.

 

I don't know Stuka.

I agree it will exist in some form, but not like it used to in the day.

You weren't world champion until you conqured the Mountain Course. I totally believe GP and maybe World SuperBike racers should have to run the TT along with their regular track dates.

BZ

 

Bad news.....will i get my entry fee back??

 

I always looked forward to watching the Paris-Dakar rally. When the holidays
are over I start looking for TV times and details of the race. I believe the Speed channel carried the event over the last few years. I think they did a great job of bringing this most difficult event to us. Having my roots in motorcross and enduro I would watch the big teams and the riders go off into the wind swept desert and dream of how I would have tried to handle several hundred miles of territory at speed just to have to do it all over again at my next shift. That was the allure of Paris-Dakar for me. I dont think there is any other event that comes close to this. Events like this are reminiscent of the
races that our Grandfathers and Great Grandfathers watched in their day. eddie

 

I saw this announced early this morning on the Cycle News website. It truly is a terrible day in the bivuoac. I just have to think about all of the people who have worked for the last 330+ days to be ready for the race, what a tragedy. This is wrong on way too many levels..........

 

That is a shame about the paris race. Death to Islam .I am a big fan of the isle of man . I am going in 2008. I dont think the GP races should be held there. The problem is the Danger. It is real. Teams push riders to race there because it is there job.It may be exciting to watch but being in a position of racing the mountain coarse or loose your job is not fair .

 

Rock on! Can't wait for the pictures you hopefullt post!


However, I have to disagree with you. How can someone call themselves world champion when they haven't touched the TT? Before you all flame away, let me finish.

What makes the TT great is not the danger, but the skill rquired to ride the course fast enough, but keep a big enough margin for safety, to win the race. The whole race is about limitations...not going all out balls to the wall like most races we watch today!

When I started watching MotoGP in 2003 I remember Max Biaggi kept washing out it seemed in every other race. And it hit me that this guy is fast and has more talent than I have in my big toe, but the way he races he'd be fucking dead on the TT. Biaggi seems to represent the mindset of many racers from bottom to top today. The tracks have been made safer and I am glad they have been, I am not into death and destruction,but the unitended consequence seems that racers wash out and its not a hugh deal. They seem more pissed they lost points than that they crashed. In 2004-or05? Valentino Rossi did not go down for a very long time that race season and when he did it scared him. You can see the footage where he is visibly shaken and I realized what makes Rossi, well Rossi, he does not go out to push to the point of crashing, he goes out to win but seems to relax and have some fun at the same time. I think a quote from David Wright's book "100 Years of the Isle of Man TT" pg 253 says it well "Indeed, many riders have said that a relaxed approach to riding the TT course yields faster laps than pushing hard"

I guess I am a little biased because I love the TT. And I think that you only know if people are truly talented in their sport when they are put into different environments. If Tiger Woods only played at 4 golf courses and he had those 4 mastered, would anybody really consider him one of the best to come along in golf?

OK flame away LOL!:rockon:

 

It is not just me saying that . That is one of the main reason they finaly pulled it fron the gp points rating .I think they want to get it off roads and only do short track racing because it is hard to charge some one for a ticket when he climed a tree on the side of the road. There is also I think a consern about spectator safty . Not only getting hit running across the road . But crouds being hit by 200 mph motorcycles. Killing the spectators led to the end of board track racing and it is never good buisness to kill the customers. I love it and cant wait to go .I will go the week before and just watch the practice leeding up to the race.

 

I enjoy watching Paris-Dakaar and am hoping that this is not the death nell for the race. The danger involved was always its appeal to both competitors and watchers alike. When it first started there were always people being killed either by accidents or hostiles.
I have always considered the TT a race apart from track racing. To me it would be the ultimate one to master and is one of the best ones to watch. Would love to be able to get over there and experience the whole thing myself. I would also like to have a go on the special all-in ride days (would be more touristy ride than a serious attempt - I don't have any illusions about my level of skill). :biggrin:

 

I know its not just you saying that, the Isle of Man has been under fire since its inception because of the danger.

Board track racing? LOL or the murderdromes as they were called. Man that took some serious stones to ride those tracks. 80mph on boards? A neat sidenote on the boardtrack racing. There were a small number of female racers and they faced little discrimination at the time. I think mainly because the race community was so small and tightknit. Oddly, once the murderdromes were outlawed, it seems women racers went with it? Hell, in the 70's the AMA tried to deny a women Kerry Kleid a race lisence.

Too bad you don't live closer Biketoc, it would be fun to shoot the bull about the TT and the state of racing.

BZ

 

Wemon have always gotten a raw real . bicycle motorcycle and car racing. Manley fron men that could not take being beaten by a girl. I always liked the big trucks that run in paris Deliware is not so far maby we can ride some time. BTW When I was a kid the guy across the street got a beta vcr the only tape he had was mad max. I watched well over 100 times.

 

Mad Max on a Beta VCR! That is great!

Our first family VCR was a beta and when I say that people are like WHAT WAS THAT?

Keep the ride in mind!

BZ

 

Laser Disk...man we are coming out of the woodwork with the technology that didn't take off LOL!

You and your Avatars...get rid of it will you Stuka! I can't get anything done because I keep spanking it!

Man it hard to type one-handed!

BZ

 

Correction»»» its not Paris-Dakar but Lisbon-Dakar at least untill next year...