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 | Silk Way Rally: Press-conference in Moscow - "Perfectly in spirit of Rallyraid".
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Revealed Thursday at 3.00 pm at the "RIA Novosti" international press center in Moscow, the "Silk Way 2012" route has already received the approval of the competitors. It should be said that with a 70% new route, the organizers have reconsidered the event to offer to the competitors, 15% additional special stages and 40% less road sections.
Details will follow, so before some "bigs" of the Rallyraid scene talk about their experiences in the Russian Rally.
Krzysztof Holowczyc, winner of the 2011 Silk Way Rally with X-raid Team: "What a good news! The Silk Way Rally is one of the most important rallies of the year, since this is the longest race after the Dakar. This is thus the best preparation, especially for my team, which still has a lot of work to improve our new engine.
Therefore the increase of special stages and the diminution of the road sections is very good news, as we will be able to test the car, mechanics having more time to work at night.
In addition, I am glad that there is more sand at the menu, since I must improve my driving abilities in this field. No really, only good news, I’m looking forward to be there."
Stéphane Peterhansel, Dakar 2012 winner: "During my 1st participation last year, I had already thought that it was a very nice event, marked by the diversity of the terrains. But, on some legs the total kms were higher than on the Dakar, because of the road sections. To shorten them in order to lengthen the special stages is very good news, that reinforces my desire to return there!"
Christian Lavieille, 3 participations in Silk Way rally: "Our cars are not made for long road sections, so it is perfect to have less of them. But what I retain above all is the novelty of the route and the big proportion of sand, because, for me, the more there is, the toughest the route is, the best!
And then, this is the soul of rally-raid to leave towards the unknown, to the discovery of new terrains. This is what we love and this year’s changes are perfectly in this spirit!"
André Dessoude, Dessoude team manager: "Clearly, the organizers took last year’s small criticisms into account, like the increase of sandy zones or the finish in Gelendzhik, as the last road section to Sochi was really painful in 2011. Moreover, talking about landscape, I do not think we will lose anything.
Finally, for our customers, the renewal of the route is excellent news, since this puts everybody to the same foot of equality, the pilots coming for the 1st time will have, indeed, more chances to compete with the ones who have already raced the event."
Philippe Gache, SMG team manager: "The route has always been remarkable, I trust the organisers, I know that they will still surprise us! For us, this rally is very important. It is a nice race, well organized and well promoted. It is The meeting of the half year and July is just the perfect month. We have time to prepare the race and the weather conditions are brilliant."
2012/04/05 | 21:42 CET | ARTICLE: MR/SY/SILKWAY
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