No road book, Santosh finishes 38th in Stage 7

UYUNI, BOLIVIA: The road book is like the eyes of a rally rider. It is vital for bikers in rally-raid like Dakar as they go solo and the terrain has impediments that are difficult to spot at high speed. Through pictorial navigation notations, it tells the rider what lies ahead.

Hero MotoSports Team Rally’s CS Santosh went into the seventh stage virtually blind as he reached the starting point of the stage to realise his road book was different from the others.

“When I went to the starting point I realised everybody’s road book was different. It was a big mess up,” Santosh said at the Uyuni bivouac at the end of the day.

“I had to ride 60km without a road book, no caution or navigation. I had to follow someone all the way. It was very tough,” he said.

However, despite the mess up, Santosh finished the special section in 2:35:14 for a highly creditable 38th position in the stage, which helped him move three places to 67th in the overall standings.

Being a short stage, Santosh did not have to make any waypoints, missing them would have earned him penalties.

As this was a marathon stage, Santosh could not take the help of his team. Towards the end of the stage, the pilots encountered a huge storm which hampered them further.

“Finishing 38th without a road book, maybe I should do this more,” Santosh joked later.

While Santosh was negotiating his roadblocks without help, co-rider Joaquim Rodrigues finished 18th in the stage and maintained his 11th position overall.

On Tuesday, the participants will complete the remaining part of the marathon stage, travelling from Uyuni to Salta without assistance.

CS SANTOSH REACHED THE STARTING POINT OF THE STAGE TO REALISE HIS ROAD BOOK WAS DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHERS