Touratech enjoy a Pyrenees Up with Austin Vince…

Our intrepid MD Nick Plumb, sets out to conquer the mountains on a 2-day off road Navigation Rally, accompanied by Craig Zocher, MD of Satellite Map specialists Azcari.

The annual “Pyrenees up” rally is run by experienced global travelers Austin (Mondo Enduro/Terra Circa) Vince and his wife Lois (Red tape and White Knuckles) Pryce. As it’s an invitation only event, finding yourself riding off-road around the Pyrenees with Austin and Lois means you’re one of the lucky ones. This was Nick’s 3rd visit to the event, calendar clashes in previous years having prevented more attendance.

Austin got the idea for this event after entering himself in a marathon Off-road race Nick organizes here in Wales annually, namely the legendary “Dawn to Dusk” Heroically Austin entered in the 12 hour class aboard his round the world bike (Suzuki DR350)! Despite the hard going on his trusty steed, he enjoyed it immensely and it inspired him to organize an alternative event that would be a lot easier and perhaps more relaxed for the less committed off roader. With this at the back of his mind, during a visit to the Pyrenees with his brother Gerald he was struck by the ideal nature of the terrain and the Pyrenees Up was born.

The event resembles a treasure hunt come orienteering event, in that you’re given a map and a booklet with lots of way marked points on it that Austin and Lois have previously set out. It’s then down to individual riders or teams to plot a route and try and get to as many as possible. We’ll hand over to Nick and Craig now for the story in their own words…


Nick:
This year was special to me as I would be riding with the man himself, Austin Vince. Having never competed in the event himself - due to his organisational responsibilities - this year he was determined to see if we could head the field home. Combining his knowledge of the check point locations and (hopefully) my speed, despite the fact that we would of course rule ourselves out of the official results – we set out with one aim in mind, to come first!

Its Thursday the 15th July and I receive a call from Craig Zocher, M.D of Azcari. He needs to get to the Pyrenees for Austin’s event and apparently my name came up as somebody who has still not sorted a plan out to get down to Spain…by the morning of Sunday the 18th Craig and I were driving on to a ferry at Dover in the Touratech van.


Craig:
A last minute invite from Austin Vince and his charming wife Lois Pryce to attend this year’s Pyrekneesup threw my schedule on its head. With less than a week to go I was frantically making plans and trying to get my bike shipped down, book flights etc. After few phone calls around the trade, I heard that Touratech M.D. Nick Plumb was in a similar predicament to me. So - after the briefest of calls, we made arrangements to share the Touratech van, the costs and the driving…

All went well and after a butt-numbing 11 hours driving from Calais, we arrived at the Riberia Hotel in Llavorsi at about 1.30 am. Rooms were rustled up by the night manager and we both crashed. Nick having done all the driving and me having done all the co-piloting, changing the audio book CD every hour and opening bags of junk food that would have delighted any 12 year old.

Nick:
My bike of choice for the trip was a Yamaha XT660 Tenere. Fully “Tourateched” up with road-book, sat nav and effectively in full desert rallye spec - but with a balding rear tire (I’ve always like a challenge..) Craig’s weapon of choice a BMW F650GS Dakar with some Touratech extras needed for off-road and long distance comfort.


Day One

Race day: (remembering this was a fun event of course – cough, cough..) as Austin and I took to the mountains the plan was to cover all the check points over the next 2 days of the event using as little of the tarmac roads as possible. As it turned out we covered over 450 miles and only about 50 of those were on road, so all credit to Austin for great planning.

As we rocked up to the 1st check point we tried out our “winning” technique… Austin would be leading, stop at each check point, point to where the plaque would be and then ride off. I would jump off, find the plaque, jot it down in the book, then chase after Austin to find the next check point. We felt sure our killer tactics would lead us to victory. The beautiful countryside was frequently accompanied by the soundtrack from my iphone with the new bar mounted iBracket proving its worth keeping it safe and sound

Day one overall went well (ok -we did miss 3 checkpoints that we were hoping to get to) but after my chain snapping on a road section, falling off on a tricky, steep hill and wasting over 5 minutes trying to pick it up and having another go (knew I should have had new tyres), plus my leader taking a few too many wrong turns (not bad considering he last rode this course fully 5 years ago!) we were more than satisfied with our efforts.


Craig:
On day one I was teamed up with Rupert who had flown out from Australia to attend the event. His regular bike, a BMW R100 was awaiting spares from the UK so he had the use of Lois’s bike, a 250 Yamaha, for the day. Despite being much slower than his regular choice of bike, it was none the less great to be out there in the hills. We took a rather leisurely approach to matters and as I was focused on my Satmap I left all the navigating to Rupert, who was very experienced in the event and navigating in general. We were only ‘lost’ a few times the whole day and never for very long.

Lunch was another leisurely event affair, sitting on the patio of a tavern in Organya where we watched a few of the other teams whistling through town on their tireless quest for points. After lunch we had a chance to do two more checkpoints bringing our total for the day to seven. The ride back to the hotel was an odd affair with Rupert going very slowly on the uphill’s on the small bike and then whizzing downhill as gravity and momentum changed sides and assisted him. A few blokes passed us with their heads down, bit between the teeth and aiming only on one thing, making it back to the hotel before cut off time at 8pm.


Day Two

Nick:
A very enjoyable meal and a great craic with the other teams set us up perfectly to take on the 2nd and final day of the event where we would be joined by my traveling partner Craig Zocher on his BMW F650GS. Craig was collecting routes for his Azcari GPS, part of his grand scheme to provide highly researched and personalized routes to go with the Satmap. The intention being people can buy certain pre-designed routes with their gps system - a great idea that I don’t think anybody else offers.

The “3 Amigo’s” set out on was to be another 12 long hours of hard riding (so Craig thought at least…) but after getting to the 1st check point, it was obvious to Craig that Austin and I were racing with the hope of trying to win the event! Craig just hooked on to our tails hoped he would still be with us at the end of the day (which in the event, to his great credit he was!) For me personally – day 2 was the better of the two days, faster tracks, more flowing etc., great for the bigger bikes. The views that over the 2 days were stunning (much of it recorded on my trusty go-pro minicam) and the mileage on off-road trails we covered was un-real – I can confidently say the Pyrenees is a must for riding adventure bikes around.


Craig:
For me day two was a creaky affair and I felt like I was made of very dry wood as I creaked out of bed. Little did I know worse was to come. Rupert had been struck down by what looked like an award winning hangover but was in fact something else entirely. Not yet dressed for the day’s events and now minus a team mate I was promptly inducted into the Austin Vince/Nick Plumb team of lunatics as third rider and occasional photographer. My mission was to take photos of the Satmap in-use and was not really prepped for the competitive spirit of things. Austin and Nick had clearly set their minds on winning the event and then stepping away as it would have been unfair on the mere mortals who attended the event. I made a mad dash back to the hotel room, puffing away as I kitted up and gathered my cameras, video helmet cam and other paraphernalia for my Satmap quest. When i got to the garage my new team mates were sitting on their bikes tapping their fingers (a theme to be repeated throughout the day). The first part of the day was a tarmac road for the first 15 minutes or so and this lulled me into a temporary sense of able capability with my machine and rider skills.

The moment we left the asphalt it was like following two madmen possessed by Loki and Nike in equal measure. Hanging onto the throttle for dear life I figured they just need to blow off some steam and things would settle down to a more reasonable pace after a while. Actually they were still warming up….

After lunch I managed to do another hour and half of crazy capers but soon felt like I was about to have a second heart attack. The guys generously offered to do one of the loops by themselves and would catch up with me as they passed through La Seu d’Urgell on the end of the loop. At least we were spared the embarrassment of meeting in the town nearby, Arseguell, the butt of many jokes.

At last we were at the end of the day with rest and results in sight. The tar road back to the hotel was just pure unwind. We had all made it through the day with no breakdowns, no bad crashes and our collective sense of humour and elation intact.


Nick:
Presentation time: our team had managed to get all but 4 check points - we felt good and confident about performance over both days, but would this be good enough to beat the normal winners of the event?…….NO of course it wasn’t, we finally came 3rd overall, with last years winners coming 2nd, this left Jenny Morgan and her team mate to win the event, which after coming 2nd for so many years themselves was a well deserved result.

I’m amazed that there are people out there who are so good at map reading, personally I can’t wait till GPS systems are allowed on the event, either that or I’m hoping Jenny lets me join her team next time.
Back on the road again…


Craig:
I cannot remember having such a good time with what was until a few days ago a group of virtual strangers. The camaraderie was exceptional and the riding better than one could dream of. Personally I have not had my riding skills pushed so far past their limits for about 20 years. Having covered over 500km off road in two days was also a revelation as we are pretty limited here in the UK. Thanks Austin for the invitation, Nick for the company and driving and to all the people I met there who went out of their way to make me welcome. I hope to see all of you next year.


And the last word to Nick…

So an early start the next morning saw Craig and I with an extra bike in the van due to bike breakdowns, missing the ferry, paying extra, hopping on another ferry companies ferry so we could get home sooner, we felt like stow-aways but we made it. After dropping Craig in Dorking at about 1.30 a.m., a further 3 hours back to Wales saw me climbing in to my bed for 4:30am. Even after an 18 hour drive through Fog, torrential rain, night and day it has to be said it was a great event and I enjoyed my self so much.

Big thank you go’s out to Austin and Lois for a great event (and for inviting me of course!), and of course my thanks to Craig for the company down there and back.

I just hope Austin remembers he’s teaming up with me in this year Dawn to Dusk 24hr Enduro, see you August bank holiday Austin!