Photo Album: 2012 Heroes Legend Prolog

The Prolog of the Heroes Legend was held on a dirt track near Birac, a few kilometers north of the city. Participants set off from the closed park in Montauban around 8:30am on Saturday, September 29th.

The warm-up lap was opened by a Dakar T4 Tatra 6×6,

followed by the bikes and then the cars.

Following the warm-up, the timed lap started with the bikes,

but the organization decided to let the Tatra complete another lap to please the crowd, even though it wasn’t competing in the race.

Following the Prolog, some of the bikes were loaded on several vehicles for the liaison from Birac to Almería, where the participants would take the ferry to Nador.

Tomáš Tomeček is providing the “camion balai” for the rally. With two Dakar podiums, Tomás is two-time champion of the Africa Eco Race in the truck category and placed 2nd overall last year.

Pascal Larroque, who participated 19 times in the Rally of Tunisia and 15 times in the Rally of Morocco, is accompanying him in the truck as navigator.

Between them Tomás and Pascal have at least 18 Dakars in both Africa and South America.

After seeing the planned route of the rally Tomáš told us it was a “professional course,” so it will be a tough challenge for many of the teams without prior experience in the African sands. The philosophy of the rally is to see that everyone makes it to the finish in Dakar. With 6’500 km of mountains, oasis, fast dirt tracks and sand, he and Pascal may have a big job ahead.

The first stage of the race got underway yesterday in Morocco.

For the second time we stayed behind and watched the rally leave without us. As we started home, our minds and hearts were filled with dreams of racing to Dakar. This feeling lasted until we arrived in a downpour at Dio-et-Valquières to join some friends at the finish of the Rally des Jojo, a cross-country rally-raid of another type: 7 days across France from the foot of the Eiffel Tower to Languedoc along secondary roads and dirt trails.

Because it was raining so hard, the organization arranged to have the final banquet in a stable.

We were invited to join in, enjoying castagnou, mussels cooked over an open fire and leg of lamb with aligot, alongside some rather interesting dinner companions.

After dinner, as we were getting ready to pitch our tent under the shelter of the shepherd’s cabin, we lent a hand to one of the participants who came to ask for help when his Deux Chevaux ended up in the ditch after he missed the turn to the field where we were camping.

It was a great weekend spent with good friends at two very special rallies.

Previously here:
Scrutineering At The Heroes Legend Rally
Heroes Legend Prolog
Photo Album: Heroes Legend 2012 Scrutineering