Drive it like its not yours

I was trawling through some photos recently and came across a video. It is from the tour of Hainan, after I crashed and was able to spend the day in the team car following the race.




Deon had found himself in the early break away and was around 6 minutes up the road, ahead of the peleton. The day was very hot and humid with rolling hills. This caused a problem. Deon needed water and the support of the car, but so did the rest of the team back in the bunch! If we were behind the peleton and Deon called for the car, we would have to get to him as fast as we could.

This meant that Markus would plant his foot to the floor and drive like a rally driver until he reached Deon. The video below shows one of these trips across to the break. As we turn the corners with spectators lining the streets, you can hear the tyres squeeling as slide around them and the engine reving to its limit. When you hear a beeping noise, these is the car telling us that we are going over 120kph.



To be honest, I was hanging onto the seat for dear life, as I was sure the car would slide out on every corner. By the end of the stage, we actually had to get a new car because the gear box packed it in and wouldn't change out of 3rd!