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2010

www.silkwayrally.ruSILK WAY RALLYSILK WAY RALLY

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AZOVSEA

BLACKSEA

CASPIANSEA

R u s s i a

11/09

13/09

14/09

15/09

16/09

17/0918/09

12/09

Staraya Russa

St.-Petersburg

Vyazma

Astrakhan

Lipetsk

Sochi

Volgograd

Elista

Maykop

2 014 км

ToTal compeTiTive lengTh

4 859 KM

ToTal lengThs of The evenT

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The silk Way Rally organizers kindly appreciate the support of Transneft Jsc,

The ministry of sport, Tourism and Youth policy of the Russian federation,

a.s.o. company,

authorities of saint petersburg, Republic of Kalmykia, Republic of adygeya, Krasnodar

and stavropol Territories, leningrad, novgorod, smolensk, Tver, Tula, lipetsk, volgograd

and astrakhan Regions.

authors:Olga Yakubova,Erik Khairullin

Texts by:Svetlana Klimova,

Svetlana Braylovskayalayout by: Alexey Zyrianov

photographs by:Eric Vargilou (DPPI Agency, www.dppi.net),

Denis Klero,Olga Yakubova,Alexey Nasyrov,

Maria Gorshkova,Roman Fedorov,Anton Elikov,Dmitry Klimov

printed by KONTY-PRINT, JSCedition size: 5 000 copies

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ContentsTowards the 2014 olympic games! ..............8The heat of the struggle

and a riot of colour! .............................. 10Saint petersburg ....................................... 16Russia and France is one team .................48Saint Petersburg .........................................51Saint Petersburg – Staraya Russa .............52Staraya Russa .............................................71Staraya Russa – Vyazma .......................... 72Vyazma .....................................................99Vyazma – Lipetsk ................................... 100Lipetsk .................................................... 125Lipetsk – Volgograd ............................... 126Volgograd ............................................... 159Volgograd – Astrakhan .......................... 160Astrakhan ............................................... 187Astrakhan – Elista .................................. 188Elista ....................................................... 221Elista – Maykop .....................................222Maykop ..................................................253Maykop – Sochi .....................................254Sochi .......................................................269Sochi – krasnaya Polyana .......................270Participants .............................................292Asisstance ...............................................293Finish ......................................................297Project support .......................................298Organizing committee

of the Silk Way Rally ...........................299Rally in figures ........................................ 301

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«i knew that this is a large-scale event but did not even imagine how massive it is»

Vladimir Putin, Maykop, September, 17, 2010

SilK WAY

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Relive the Silk Way

When we first started to work on the Silk Way Rally there were many doubts, but the result has exceeded all of our most daring expectations. The first edition of the Silk Way Rally along the Kazan – Ashgabat route was a success. The level of preparation and run-ning of the rally-marathon was praised highly by the President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev.

After that, we immediately started prep-arations for the second edition of the ral-ly. The inspirer of this Russian race, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, suggested that we organize an annual competition that finish-es in the heart of the 2014 Olympic Games; the city of Sochi.

When the first reconnaissance group ven-tured out for the route exploration, snow was still covering the terrain. And though we still had several months, we hurried to bring the route to perfection. The reconnaissance expedition did a great job to make the Silk Way Rally 2010 remembered for a long time by the participants with its unexpected as-pects and discoveries. We wanted not only to make the route truly diverse and as compli-cated as possible for the participants, but also to show them Russia in all its glory and vast-ness. And at the same time, to accept them as dearest guests, introducing the national tradi-tions of our country.

We gave away all the cards to the partici-pants and it was their challenge to find and experience the adventures. To look back and refresh all the exciting moments of the mara-thon just browse this to the last page.

Have a nice Silk Way!

Semen Yakubov,

Silk Way Rally Project Director

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The joy of a coming miracle – that’s how a child feels unwrapping the gift.

The whole country is anticipating the Sochi-2014 Olympic Games that Russia is arranging for the world. This renovated country has something special to pres-ent and this time the rally route connected the northern capital of Russia, the city of St. Petersburg, with a fu-ture capital of 2014 Olympic Games, the city of Sochi.

Last year we all witnessed the great success of the premiere Silk Way Rally. The presidents of Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan met in Turkmenbashi to celebrate the birth of this new sports event and to congratulate the crews who went down in history as pioneers of the Silk Way Rally.

The rally agenda became even more interesting this year. The length of the route was 4 859 kilometers. It is comparable in difficulty to the first edition of the Silk Way Rally, and in some sections it was even more complex and challenging than last year. As the par-ticipants headed towards the finish line they crossed three climatic zones becoming familiar with Northern, Central and Southern parts of Russia, seeing the steppes of Kalmykia, sands of Astrakhan and Volgograd re-gions and the mountain rivers of the Caucasus. The at-mosphere of the exciting adventure was guaranteed to the participants throughout the race.

ToWARdS The 2014 olYMpiC gAMeS!

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Transneft is the title sponsorof the SilK WAY RAllY dakar Series

The Silk Way Rally – Dakar Series Organizing Committee and Transneft Company joined their forces to prepare and run the large sporting event – the in-ternational race, Silk Way Rally.

The Silk Way Rally is a bright, memorable event in the global motorsport calendar and demonstrates courage, endurance and skills. We have seen eight days of the breathtaking race, the triumph of sport-ing spirit, the joy of victories. The rich historical past of our country, the beauty of nature and centuries-old traditions of Russian hospitality made the travel along the race route from St. Petersburg to Sochi vivid and memorable. Numerous Russian motorsport fans and millions of viewers all over the world made much of the rally world, unique in its strength and thrill, and got strong, positive emotions.

On behalf of Transneft Board and the Silk Way Rally – Dakar Series Organizing Committee let us wish you the welfare, the sporting success and the joy of new achievements!

Nikolai TokarevPresident, Chairman of the board of Transneft JSC

deAR pARTiCipAnTS And gueSTS of The inTeRnATionAl

SilK WAY RAllY dAKAR SeRieS!

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The heAT of The STRuggle And A RioT of ColouR!The RouTe of The SilK WAY RAllY 2010

stage Date stage route assis. Race ll1 ss1 ll2 ss2 ll3

1 11/09 St. Petersburg – SS1 – S. Russa 295 415 160 85 170

2 12/09 S. Russa – SS2.1 – SS2.2 – Vyazma 625 770 185 105 130 104 260

3 13/09 Vyazma – SS3 – Lipetsk 575 605 385 210 10

4 14/09 Lipetsk – SS4 – Volgograd 650 790 440 300 50

5 15/09 Volgograd – SS5 – Astrakhan 450 600 135 450 15

6 16/09 Astrakhan – SS6 – Elista 320 505 105 400 0

7 17/09 Elista – SS7 – Maikop 660 780 0 340 440

8 18/09 Maikop – SS8 – Krasnaya Polyana 345 380 230 20 130

Total: 3920 4 859 1640 1 910 945 104 260

Total lengths of the event: 4 859 kmTotal competitive length: 2 014 kmlength of liaison sections: 2 845 kmlength of the assistance route: 3 920 km

The competition in 2010 wasn’t just an easy ride and that’s what attracts the top-rated pilots and fans of motor racing to the Silk Way Rally. The main key to success for an off-road rally is its route. The Silk Way Rally represents the concentration of the Dakar fundamentals: overcoming difficulties in extreme en-vironments and getting familiar with the geography and history of the territories on the route. Every day brought a new route, new terrain and new conditions. Each special stage of the race was unique, and each day set new challenges for the crews.

The route was based on contrasts: the white nights of St. Petersburg to the starry nights of Sochi, the swamps of Leningrad Region to the flowing hot sands of Astrakhan, the boundless steppes of Kalmykia to the Caucasian cloud-high peaks.

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Administrative checks – the beginning of a long journey

Everyone is equal for the stewards

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Scrutineerings is a mandatory procedure for all sports vehicles

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Scrutineering is behind, new adventures are ahead

Even the trucks don't need any extra kilogramNasser Saleh Al Attiyah does not think that being interviewed before the start is a bad luck

Those spare wheels should be enough to do the race

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Scrutineering is behind, new adventures are ahead

Even the trucks don't need any extra kilogram The Volkswagen team is an ornament to the race… …and their «matador» Carlos Sainz

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SAinT peTeRSbuRgFor a few days in September St. Petersburg turned

from the cultural capital of Russia into the capital of sports. Never before in its history had the Palace Square seen such a collection of vehicles. And the idea of the organizers to start the race from the heart of the city, right by the former winter residence of the royal family, (which is now a museum of a global re-nown) has been highly praised. Not only the guests but also the rally participants were excited with this idea. Their racing vehicles harmoniously blended into the ar-chitectural ensemble of the Palace Square.

The opening ceremony of the SILK WAY RALLY 2010 Dakar Series looked like a real high fashion show of the global automotive industry. Even the podium was built so all the spectators who came to the square on September 10th, could see the “haute couture” ve-hicles in detail. However, only the racing cars were in-vited to drive up the podium – the trucks were parked on a separate spot.

The audience enjoyed the great opportunity to touch the cars and take pictures with them in the background before the ceremonial start of the race. The spectators also could meet the world famous drivers and their vehicles the day before the ceremony during the ad-ministrative checks and scrutineering. By the way, all the preparations were held not far from the Finnish Gulf, so the participants could enjoy the picturesque views while waiting for their turn to pass through all the checks. In the evening before the race started the organizers, participants and journalists were in-vited to a reception at the residence of the governor of St. Petersburg Valentina Matvienko. The wishes of the “silk” way were addressed to everyone involved in the rally on behalf of the City Administrator.

The next morning the Minister of Sport, Tourism and Youth Policy Vitaliy Mutko welcomed the rally par-ticipants and wished them a good luck on the route. To acknowledge the Minister’s support the organizers presented him a rally winner’s cup.

Alliance of business and sports: Vice-President of Transneft Mikhail Barkov and the Minister Vitaliy Mutko

Semen Yakubov and Frederic Lequien wish happy trails to the drivers

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The Palace Square – a place of historical events

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Semen Yakubov, the project director of the Silk Way Rally and Frederic Lequien, the director of Dakar Series were introducing the participants. The Dakar Champion and the last Silk Way winner Carlos Sainz was honored to be the first one to enter the podium. His teammates from the Volkswagen team were Nasser Al Attiyah, Mark Miller and Giniel De Villiers.

43 cars were ready at the start line of the Silk Way Rally 2010. There were quite a lot of eminent Russian participants in the cars category. Boris Gadasin, Ilya Kuznetsov, Alexey Berkut and more names of the fa-mous Russian drivers were on the start list.

Particular attention was attracted to the female crew – Elena Pravdina and Elena Golubkina. It was their second Silk Way. Like perfect ladies, two Elenas’ had the suits of the same color of their vehicle and before entering the podium they were preening themselves in front of a mirror

When the cars made way for the 16 trucks in the race, the first to go was Vladimir Chagin, one of the favorites for victory. He almost jumped be-hind the steering wheel, since before this he was signing autographs to his fans for almost an hour. KAMAZ-master team had prepared seven racing trucks for the second edition of the Silk Way Rally one of which was assembled right before the race

start. This new KAMAZ was built especially for Chagin, so the Silk Way was a kind of a trial race before the Dakar for him. Another two trucks were entrusted to the young pilots Eduard Nikolaev and Airat Mardeev.

Unfortunately the primary opponent, as well as the best friend of KAMAZ team – Gerard De Rooy had to decline his participation in the race due to a serious back injury he got in Turkmenistan during in the first Silk Way. To recover for the upcoming Dakar, the doc-tors advised him to refrain from the stress of the rally. But he sent two crews from his team to participate. One more race favorite Ales Loprais said before the start that he was going to take the revenge for the last year’s Silk Way where he finished third. When Semen Yakubov and Frederic Lequien had intro-duced all the race participants, the caravan started the way towards Luga town. Incidentally, the opening ceremony of the Silk Way Rally was assigned to the morning, so that the partici-pants wouldn’t have to loose their time in traffic jams. Before the start Semen Yakubov was asked if there will be any “green corridor” for the participants through St. Petersburg. He laughed off that “the traffic jams are also a part of the challenge”. However, the authorities provided the caravan with a clear passage.

The crew of Helens of Troy – Elena Pravdina and Elena Gloubkina

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No one knows yet who will win

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No one knows yet who will win

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Let's synchronize the watch

Champion of Russia Boris Gadasin is self-confident Katalin Nagy-Shackley, press officer of the Hungarian team Navigator Jorg Sand is concentrated on the start

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There was no free space on the Palace Square

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Vladimir Chagin has a lot of fans

KAMAZ-Master team prepared seven trucks for the race

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The scrutineering was arranged right on the Gulf of Finland shore

Mechanics will always find reasons to have a look under the bonnet Christian Lavieille from France pushes luck not for the first time in Russia

Svetlana Klimova, the Project Marketing Director, and Pascal Quatrehomme, A.S.O. Coordinator

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The cream of the global automotive industry resided on the Palace Square

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Parade in front of the General Staff Building

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Spectators were thrilled with Matthias Kahle's buggy

Co-pilot Thomas Schuenemann and pilot Matthias Kahle

Parade in front of the General Staff Building

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Alexander Mironenko (Russia) – one of the potential race leaders Bogdan Novitsky represents Ukraine at the highest levelNavigator Konstantin Mescheryakov and driver Alexey Berkut – the famous Russian crew

Rus-Sport team is ready to beat the off-road

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Rus-Sport team is ready to beat the off-road

Sergey Savenko is concentrated

Igor Petenko is a very experienced co-driver

Sergey Lebedev starts the race from his hometownIlgizar Mardeev is signing autographs before a long way

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Silk Way Rally drew attention of the wide range of mass-media

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Vladimir Chagin, the seven-time winner of the Dakar is in focus

Bogdan Novitsky: a picture before the startValery Khlebutin is the Master of the ceremonial start

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Navigator Timo Gottschalk is delighted with Saint Petersburg Yann Le Moenner wishes farewell to Carlos Sainz

The crew from Israel on the start podium: pilot Hillel Segal and navigator Raz HeymannDriver Nasser Al Attiyah and Frederic Lequien, the Director of Dakar Series

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The crew from Israel on the start podium: pilot Hillel Segal and navigator Raz Heymann

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Jeanne Veber (in the middle): "The expectations were met – the ceremony is a success!"

The crew of Vadym Nesterchuk and Valerii Subota do not miss any significant race

The crews from CIS countries took part in the race, particularly – from Ukraine and Kazakhstan

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Crew 102 started, their time ticks

Crew 108 is tested by Dakar and ready for Silk Way

Jeanne Veber (in the middle): "The expectations were met – the ceremony is a success!" Artem Yakubov, Silk Way Rally Administrative Director

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Franz Echter crew aims to win Trucks of De Rooy team – perfect in everything

KAMAZ-Master service truck – a mobile factory Alena Govorova – the Outfit Coordinator

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The truck from Belarus – the race debutante

Crew 203: Moi Torrallardona, Peter Van Eerd, Pep Vila Roca

Trucks of De Rooy team – perfect in everything

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The rivals – side by side

The new generation of KAMAZ-Master team: Ayrat Mardeev, Igor Devyatkin, Andrey Karginov and Artur Ardavichus

The cream of global automotive industry

Spouses Ivlev. Yury is responsible for RAID category, and Nadezhda – for souvenirs sale

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Sunny morning, a good cigar – what else is needed for a great mood. David Oliveras before the start

Crew 202: mechanic Jaroslav Miskolci, navigator Milan Holan and driver Ales Loprais – the successors of the legendary Karel Loprais

The rivals – side by side

Spouses Ivlev. Yury is responsible for RAID category, and Nadezhda – for souvenirs sale

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Long time no see! Konstantin Mescheryakov, Anton Nikolaev and Andrey Mokeev from Russia

Nasser Al Attiyah and reporter Andrey Leontyev, as a pilot this time. Now they have a lot of common topics for discussion

Navigators of VW team choose the direction

Sergey Khalzev is driving Land Rover this time

Honored Russian pilot Yuri Borovikov, and one of the most renowned drivers of Russia Ruslan Misikov

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Nasser Al Attiyah and reporter Andrey Leontyev, as a pilot this time. Now they have a lot of common topics for discussion

Navigator Dirk Von Zitzewitz and driver Giniel De Villiers Alexander Column – the starting point of the race

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…and a press-conference for journalists

Briefing for the participants…

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…and a press-conference for journalists

Ceremonial reception in the governmental residence is held by the Vice-Governor Vyatcheslav TikhonovGennady Boroznov – the representative of the Ministry of Sports, Tourism and Youth Policy

Briefing for the participants…

Gennady Fokshansky is eliminating the language barriers Primex company – the regular partner of the rally

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RuSSiA-fRAnCe iS one TeAM

Sergey Girya, Frederic Lequien, Semen Yakubov, Yann Le Moenner, Jean-Etienne Amaury and Bulat Yanborisov

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Sergey Girya, Frederic Lequien, Semen Yakubov, Yann Le Moenner, Jean-Etienne Amaury and Bulat Yanborisov

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SAinT peTeRSbuRgThe city of white nights, the cultural capital

of Russia, Northern Venice or Northern Palmyra. All this is about Saint Petersburg, the city that was founded in 1703 by Peter I the Great. By founding the city on the Gulf of Finland by the Baltic Sea, Peter I opened a window to Europe. From the eigh-teenth to the twentieth century Saint Petersburg was the capital of Russia. Today this majestic city is called the second or northern capital of the country. In 1725 about 40 thousand people lived there and nowadays – about five million.

Saint Petersburg has experienced three revolu-tions, a civil war and a siege during World War II.

During its three hundred year history the city name has changed several times: for ten years, from 1914, Saint Petersburg was called Petrograd, and af-ter that until 1991 – Leningrad. The citizens helped to return its historical name during the referendum – the majority voted for Saint Petersburg.

Unique in its beauty, the historical center of Saint Petersburg is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The city is gracefully adorned with spacious squares, straight streets, parks and gardens, islands, rivers, canals, embankments and bridges. Tourists from all over the world come here to see the bridg-es drawn. And all this is crowned by the world-fa-mous architectural ensembles: the heart of the city – the Palace Square with the Winter Palace; its thor-oughfare – Nevsky Prospect; the head – the Smolny Institute, where the official residence of the governor is currently located. The “crown” of Saint Petersburg has several “ jewels” such as the Peter and Paul Fortress, Alexander Nevsky Monastery, Admiralty, the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island with the Stock Exchange build-ing, the Senate Square with the monument to Peter the Great and the Saint Isaac’s Square. About eight thousand monuments of architecture are under state protection. One more place of interest in the north-ern capital is the fountains. The best-known fountain complex is located in Petergof, not far from Saint Petersburg.

Governor of St. Petersburg Valentina Matvienko – the hospitable hostess of the rally start

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The first stage of the rally began with contrasts; an “imperial” send off from the Palace Square in St. Petersburg in the morning, then special stage on the tank range covered with mushrooms and berries not far from Luga in Leningrad region in the afternoon.

At about two o’clock in the afternoon there was news from the first special stage: Carlos Sainz from Volkswagen team was the first to try the route in his new Racing Touareg. After him his team mate Giniel De Villiers started. The Russian crew of Boris Gadasin in his G Force Proto was the third on the start-list.

Almost an hour later the trucks lined up at the start. Winner of the 2009 Silk Way Rally Firdaus Kabirov was the first starter from the KAMAZ-Master team and

he caught up with the cars quite soon. Trying to keep up, the main opponent of Kabirov, the Czech Ales Loprais on his Tatra put the hammer down.

One of KAMAZ-Master team members compared the first special stage to a carting track. In his opinion, it was rather tight in there, but this was the organizers’s idea when they were choosing the area. On the relatively short (by the rally standards) 86-kilometer stage, the participants could warm up before the multi-day mara-thon really started. There was a little bit of everything, as though it was all perfectly planned: narrow twisting stony roads, hilly wood tracks with deep ruts and sands...

The weather also made its contribution. Soaking the route with a downpour it created some additional

SS-1 The dediCATion To puShKin

ST. peTeRSbuRg – S. RuSSA

The car of Mathias Behringer hardly fits the old bridge in the woods

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KAMAZ truck driven by Firdaus Kabirov comes over an obstacle with a pinpoint accuracy

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difficulties for the participants and only one driver, Russia’s Boris Gadasin admitted that he was glad about the rain. Probably, he missed it during a hot summer.

The participants even had to fly a bit during the first stage. However, not everyone was able to cope with their vehicles being in the air. At the same spot two cars unsuccessfully landed, Dmitry Filonets and Alexandr Moroz in their Nissan from Kazakhstan and then Oliver Koepp in his G-Class. The front axle was ripped off and that was the end of their rally there and then. Both teams stopped in a rather dangerous place though and there was only just enough space for the trucks to get through… the situation also wasn’t helped by curious spectators standing in the middle of the road and the trucks came through blaring their horns.

Giniel De Villiers won this first stage, in a time of 54 minutes 58 seconds and his team mate Nasser Al Attiyah came in second, 2 minutes 6 seconds be-hind. Third place was the property of Boris Gadasin with Carlos Sainz only in fourth. He explained that it was a very difficult stage with many intersections and difficulties in the road. Because he had so much mud on the windscreen he had a slight off which damaged the bonnet, and he lost even more time when he took a wrong turn. Giniel De Villiers made no secret of hoping for an easier opening stage rather than one that could seriously damage his vehicle in the wet, narrow forest tracks.

The trucks also barely fitted into the tight forest trails. Branches, like huge hands, reached out to the

heavyweight cabs, trying to slow them down to steal the precious seconds. Just a kind of mysticism... one team found that the forest is inhabited with evil spir-its. Pep Vila rolled over his truck just 41 kilometers from the start… Vladimir Chagin of the KAMAZ team stopped to make sure that everything was OK and after the time-keepers re-adjusted the time he spent helping, he was rewarded with the fastest time. Franz Echter also stopped to help for 2 minutes and also had this time given back. Commentators who covered the race, asked to re-member the name of Eduard Nikolaev, as he is the fu-ture of the KAMAZ-Master Team. On the rough stage near Luga he came third, confirming his status of a ris-ing star.

160 tons of aviation kerosene was used during the raceHillel Segal from Israel wished that he had time to go for mushrooms

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Native forest helps Igor Sadovskiy from Russia

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For those who made Dakar this kind of obstacles is newNative forest helps Igor Sadovskiy from Russia

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FIA Technical Delegate Vladimir Guba

The route was laid by legendary participants of the Dakar – Jean-Pierre Fontenay and Stephane Le Bail

Trucks start to the first special stage

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The driver of the route opening group – a ten-times Champion of Russia in motor sport Farit Badretdinov

Sergey Girya, the Executive Director, is sure – the participants will enjoy the route

The route was laid by legendary participants of the Dakar – Jean-Pierre Fontenay and Stephane Le Bail

Sergey Talantsev and Sergey Savkin make last edits in the road bookTrucks start to the first special stage

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The ambulance is always on duty at the start and at the finish

The most delicious and strong coffee at a control point: the director of Dakar series Frederic Lequien, the Art Director Olga Yakubova, the Silk Way Rally Project Director Semen Yakubov

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The timing does not tolerate mistakes

The time-keepers and medical crew are the first ones who arrives to the stage finish

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Hot-tempered fans are happy to rush and help the crew

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Igor Sadovskiy knows where to digIlya Kuznetsov puts the hammer down

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Despite his young age, Ales Loprais is a very serious opponent

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The main point – avoiding blundersFrederic Chavigny: «Well, there you go!»

Clouds of dust – another obstacle for the rivalsBogdan Vavrenuk's UAZ in its habitatSometimes you have to dive into work

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The Russian vehicle of Binyamin Dzhepaev can rear up

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…and meet their first failure

De Rooy crew gets a really good pace…

The Russian vehicle of Binyamin Dzhepaev can rear up

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Mushroom soup and pelmeni for dinner tonight

Briefing of the first stage. Cold and rainy day seemed endless

…and it's warm and tasty in the bivouac

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Mushroom soup and pelmeni for dinner tonight Mechanics, like owls, do their work at nights

Creative Director of the race Bulat Yanborisov is worried: it's the first dinner for a thousand of people

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Almost a hundred kilometres from Veliky Novgorod there is a small town well-known for its archaeological finds. A lot of preserved birch bark manuscripts were found, and for centuries here was the salt production center of Russia.

There’s another curious fact about this town, sci-entists cannot agree about the year, or even the century, of its foundation. There is a guess that the settlement appeared around the 10th century, and the town was first mentioned in the Novgorod chronicles in 1167. Staraya Russa originated on the great trading waterway “From the Varangians to the Greeks”, that passed through Eastern Europe con-necting Scandinavia with Byzantium.

According to popular legend, Staraya Russa was founded by the glorious heroes of Sloven and Rus as they searched for new lands on their way from the Black sea. Up north they came across a large, beau-tiful lake with a wide river flowing out of it. The knights loved these lands and one founded the town of Slovensk Veliky (currently Veliky Novgorod) on the riverhead and another founded the town of Rus (currently Staraya Russa) near the confluence of two rivers and not far from the brine-springs.

It is known that the town was called Staraya Rusa when the tsar Ivan the Terrible legitimated it as an oprichniks town. The second “s” in the town name was added in the beginning of the last century. Staraya Russa was repeatedly burned to the ground. In 16th century it was burnt by Polish-Lithuanian troops, in the middle of 18th century there was a wildfire that completely destroyed all the wood-en buildings. Then the authorities decided to shift the downtown to the right bank of Polist river and erect buildings made of stone.

By the way, in the middle of the 16th centu-ry Staraya Russa was the fourth most populace city of the Russian state after Moscow, Pskov and Novgorod. These days around 60 000 people live there. There are few dozen historical, cultural and architectural monuments in this relatively small town.

STARAYA RuSSA

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The fog made some adjustments to the organizers’ plan about the nine o’clock start this morning. The helicopters could not take off, and the organizers were quite helpless without them. So the start was postponed for almost two hours. The participants who did not expect such a surprise from the nature woke up before the dark and arrived in time to the first special stage. Waiting for an invitation to start, the participants had lively conversations with the locals who were eager to see an unforgettable show so they had to wake up at the crack of dawn and made a pretty long way. Prior to the start of the rally the manage-ment team of the marathon did not disclosure the loca-tions of starts and finishes, but later, after numerous re-quests from the spectators they finally took the wraps off.

Someone from sportsmen noticed few edible mushrooms not far from the start line and regretted that didn’t take a basket with him. There’s no reason to waste time! And someone, languishing in idleness, remembered the proverbial wisdom that suited this situation: “There’s nothing worse than wait and catch up”. Finally, the weather had mercy, and helicopters were able to take off into the sky. If the participants knew, that this stage will be very tough and dirty, they would rest some more before the start.

Giniel De Villiers, winner of the previous special stage, was the first one who started. Nasser Al Attiyah rushed after him. Boris Gadasin started the third. The Volkswagen drivers we puzzled with this Russian –

SS-2а «LakeS of VaLday» & SS-2В «Bear TraiL»

STaraya rUSSa – VyaZMa

Vadym Nesterchuk was unstoppable

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While running over the obstacle one can also wash the vehicle

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The rain soaked the road and created additional difficulties to the participants

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they did not really expect that they’ll have to compete with such a dangerous rival. Almost one hour after De Villiers’ start the trucks have started. The stage was opened, as it should be, by winner of the previous stage Vladimir Chagin.

To avoid an easy ride for the participants, orga-nizers have added some complications to the second and further stages. The first 150-km special stage be-gun with a wide road where you can ride with the breeze, and then the track got much narrower and finally brought the crews into the woods. And right at that point the durability test has started not only for the vehicles but also for the drivers’ nerves. The road in the woods was twisting, the ruts were making the drivers to slow down. Along the way the partici-pants had to fit in the small bridges, ease through the swamp and pass through the water crossing. Only at the outskirts of the forest the participants could relax a little bit on a beautiful meadow. But then again – sand, mounds, rocks, ditches, deep puddles and ruts,

and clouds of dust above the dry sections. On that day the crews that were catching up, had to swallow it all the time. And on top of that the slowest crews have gathered all the potholes and ditches left behind by the leaders of the race. Already at the finish many drivers said that when they were trying to pass the cars in front, they were immediately falling into the trap: a little away from the road and immediately a mud bath. If they only knew that the organizers gave a very lyrical name to this special stage: “Lakes of Valday”!

It looks like Don Carlos Sainz was the only one who did not care about ruts and ditches. Eager to catch up the time lost during the first stage he was driving at all his might to the finish. He just casually mentioned that «there were many interesting options for interchanges at the beginning of the stage”. As the result, Sainz won the first part of the stage and behind him, one after another the rest of the Volkswagen team came – Nasser Al Attiyah, Mark Miller and Giniel De Villiers.

The second section of the special stage in 130 kilo-

meters from the first section finish was named «Bear Trail». And it wasn’t for nothing! People say that there are some bears around. However, the participants could not verify those rumors. Not just bears will hide in their lairs when the engines are roaring. The organizers kept their promise to organize a real attraction for the co-drivers. So called «the path», if it’s possible to say like that about the 100-km second section of the stage was full of jumps and blind bends. The crews were warned that they should drive careful and watch the tires, be-cause the stones on the route are scalpel-sharp. Did Carlos Sainz hear that? This already does not matter. He was heading to the victory with an average speed of 140-150 kilometers per hour. And he won the sec-ond special stage and got the first position in overall ranking.

On the contrary, Giniel De Villiers had hard times. As recently as at the first special stage his windshield wip-ers betrayed him – they were barely coping with the spatters that flew out from puddles. He tried to repair them during liaison, but it didn’t work out. In the sec-ond special stage De Villiers has allowed Nasser to go little bit ahead of him, but then he greatly regretted about it – the air was full of dust after Al Attiyah so that De Villiers had to tap the road. Giniel gave the road to the team mate and moved his position down in the stage ranking. In the second stage he finished only fourth, but in overall ranking retained his third position. Boris Gadasin, the one Don Carlos was trying to catch up and overtake, has shown the fifth result this day. As the result of two sections of the stage he gained the fourth position, being 5 minutes and 17 seconds behind Sainz.

And what about the trucks? Unexpectedly for him-self Eduard Nikolaev from the youth team of KAMAZ-Master won the stage. He was so impressed that his triumph was the only thing he could talk about dur-ing an interview. His coach, Vladimir Chagin, was not surprised at all. Vladimir has trained Eduard himself! Chagin was only the third at a finish line, but then again, there was an external reason for that: “We de-cided to pull out the car that got stuck in the mud and blocked the road, it was necessary to help them out.” Despite everything, the legendary driver still retained his leading position in the ranking. By the way, Pep Vila, who failed the previous stage, did not retire the race at all. Instead, he braced up and finished this stage on the ninth position. That’s how the longest special stage of the Silk Way Rally Dakar Series 2010 ended up.

Matthias Kahle doesn't care of this "sea"

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Giniel De Villiers had hard times: the windshield wipers betrayed him and hardly coped with spatters

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The first stage was unexpectedly difficult for the drivers of Gerard De Rooy teamGiniel De Villiers had hard times: the windshield wipers betrayed him and hardly coped with spatters

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Forest turns of Bogdan VavrenukPavel Ushakov – the advantages of the four-wheel drive Christian Lavielle – when one wiper is not enough..

All the drivers without exception, took a mud bath

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The nephew of the legendary Dakar winner Karel Loprais, Ales step by step gets into the racing performance

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«Japanese» on the march

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FIA stewards are very concentrated on work

Carlos Sainz was the first who obeyed "Lakes of Valday" and "Bear Trail"

The locals occupied the best spectators' "seats"

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Alexey Sergeev and Aleksey Korotaev show quite good results on their home off-road trails

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Alexey Sergeev and Aleksey Korotaev show quite good results on their home off-road trails

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Sergey Levedev says the rally is an excellent preparation for DakarThe starting group steward Jacques-Yves Issno

Boris Gadasin from Russia is catching up the VW quartet

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The last car on the stage route: the "sweepers" Out in the gap

Farit Badretdinov and the Director for Logistics Alexey Yakubov

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Security issues are solved quickly: Viktor Sokolov, Sergey Girya and Sergey TalantsevOut in the gap

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First impressions

Famous northern marshesThe pilot of crew №105 Matthias Kahle is at the forefront of the race

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Famous northern marshes

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Ilya Kuznetsov is in top ten Interview with Alexander Mironenko at the stage finish

The rally bivouac was set right on the airfield

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Sometimes the vehicles are literally stepping on each other's bumpers

The rally bivouac was set right on the airfield

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Finish in Vyazma

Parc ferme: the only exception is made for camera-works Navigator Alexey Kuzmich. UAZ is going well.

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Navigator Alexey Kuzmich. UAZ is going well.

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Andre Dessoude and his team

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Performances of the best folklore groups were a surprise for the participants

First Vice-Governor of the Smolensk region, Alexander Logutov meets the racers with bread and salt

Sergey Girya is always at the forefrontAndre Dessoude and his team

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Rally headquarters arrived to the bivouac next to Vyazma

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It's always possible to get some food any time in bivouac

The doctors were out of work during the first stages

Stephane Abramovich – the doctor, who is always ready to help

No vehicles were left on the racing route

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