736km (of which 93km was the Special Section)
Photos from the start in St. Petersburg (June 12)Friday the 13th, Day 2 ..... and more adventures for Patricia No 22.
I spoke to her earlier and got the news on the day.....here is the story:
The Special Section (the timed, always off-road, part of the day's course that really counts), was "interesting".
It started off well, with Patricia being given a webcam to wear by the TV company - and for over 70 km she filmed and gave a commentary into the webcam. So watch Motors TV if you have it overnight, she may feature in it a lot.
Then...... she hit a water hole...... or by the sound of it...... she went into it and started to swim !!
When she got the bike out, the back-wheel was locked and would not move. A "tecnical looking" chap came over and diagnosed "you have broken your gear-box, you are out of the Rally".
A few swear words later, Patricia decided to apply the best German engineering principles to the situation and revved the engine, and dragged the bike forward with locked wheel for 100 metres. The wheel suddenly freed itself and she carried on for 370km of Liaison (the road bit) stage to the end of the day !! Broken Gearbox..... fixed !!
For the 370 km the rain was coming down in torrents and there was loads of thunder and lightening. In addition to the obvious challenges, it was added to because Russian petrol stations will not serve petrol if there is a storm happening (but you can use your mobile phone!). So Patricia had to drive economically and get 370km on 23 litres.
I spoke to her, soaked through, in the Bivouac, where it was so muddy the support vehicles could not get through !! She was still in good spirits though!
Patricia came 43rd on today's stage and is 44th overall after 2 stages.
Reminders if you are glued to progress and want up to the minute news:
Motors TV is a good watch each night, repeated the next morning, if you have access to it...
Online progress of each stage is alegedly going to be available on the www.transorientale.com website from tomorrow (Stage 3).
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