.As in all the years I’ve tried following the Dakar via sometimes sketchy TV-shows in the middle of the night... I’ve NEVER-EVER-EVER seen such a comical Cock-up as Messer Gordon’s... Although it seems slightly odd to Mwah that the cameras just happened to be Johnny On-the-Spot and capture Robby saying into his radio... (WTF? – my words...) What? What do you mean Eliseo’s already driven by??? As Salazar is Robby’s “Domestique” as Robby ‘Purple Floyd likes to call them. (And I believe I’ve also heard the term Water-carrier during the broadcasts...)
But it was FREAKIN’ Hillarious to listen to ‘Ol Gordon pining away in disbelief – as apparently “Salad-bar” had NEVER seen his team leader’s (employer) stricken Hummer on the side of the road after the refueling stop during the Liaison (Pre-race) portion of the morning’s event and drove onto the start, leaving Robby’s stricken ‘HumDinger on the side of the road awaiting new parts to repair its broken right front wheel; Aye Karumba!
As although Robby did complete the stage some 5+ hours later, he was officially “D-S-Queued” (Disqualified) from the event for failing to make the start on time – and has now packed up ‘N flown back to California to prepare for his Day-job – somme-thun called RASSCAR...
Later during the broadcast Gernot Bauer noted how my Homeboy Jonah Street was victim to not being on a full “works” YamaHopper – as Jonah’s ‘Scooter, amongst others was suffering from the stage’s extremely high altitude; some 11,000+ feet – suffering from a lack of oxygen as he didn’t have the latest Direct-injection set-up of the factory riders and thus, was suffering from a lack of horsepower! Yet, Street has rebounded up to eighth-place overall as of Stage-5.
Meanwhile, Cyril Despres, one of the two favourites for overall victory in this year’s Dakar Bikes category was handed a 10-minute time penalty for not entering/exiting the Bivouac correctly – get this; after having forgotten his riding gloves! Which he went back to retrieve prior to the stages start...
