Dakar

Chris once again had a good start but shortly after Waypoint 2 he crashed.

His 16 second call was enough for him to tell me ‘Hi, I’ve had a crash, I’m fine, the bike is broken, but I can fix it, but I’m ok, I just didn’t want you to worry, love you bye!’

What a relief as I could see he had fallen behind!

Here is what is ahead for Chris tomorrow / today: Start of the stage is 5:30am GMT -3 (NZT 21:30) and start of the special is 10:19am GMT -3 (2:19 AM!! AM!!) for Chris. Hope that Ecuadorian 'altittude training' comes in handy for the climb!

Thanks Sergio for sending this one through!

ooooh ouch!! porr guy, hope he recovers well!

Day three done and dusted!

Chris arrived at Waypoint 1 in 23rd position, but by the end of the 270km special stage he was at 38th. This has moved him down slightly to 34th overall.

He is pretty happy with this as there are still 11 more race days to go and so far has had no major problems which is great.

Darryl finished in 36th today and moved to 35th overall so the two will leave just a minute or so apart tomorrow.

Thanks to Sergio for sending these through!!

If you have ever been lucky enough to fly over the Andes Mountains, you will have some sort of idea of what awaits the competitors during the third stage of the Dakar 2012 this Tuesday. As if squeezed by the hand of a giant, the rocks are laid out in strata, then suddenly cut off, offering the eyes a palette of red and orange nuances. On the ground, the reality is less poetic: on the day's special stage between San Rafael and San Juan, river bed crossings as well as potholes and rocks make the terrain particularly bumpy.

Chris got off to a good start for Day 2 – the bikes started at 5am and a few hours later headed to the special stage.

Chris came to WayPoint 1 in around 34^th place, but was missing from WP2 ... a nervous wait in the early hours of the NZ morning saw him appear at WP3 in about 30^th.

He then finished the Special Stage in 30^th place (provisional). Sitting now in 31^st which is fantastic.