How to read a "Road Book" in the Dakar 2010

Pilot and mechanic checking the instrumental tension before leaving early in a stage of the Dakar 2006

The art of navigation is the most important in a Rally and takes on even greater importance in Dakar as each competitor receives the night before each stage, the "Road Book" that is the roadmap to be followed in the stage of next day, if not to be irretrievably lost amid inhospitable routes or worse, in the terrible desert of Atacama in northern Chile, with temperatures as extreme as the order of 40 º C or more.
Here is an example of leaves No. 6 and 7 of the "Road Book" of Dakar and run above:

This is a "Road Book" last year

In this example, the owner has bound as a memento, although the organization delivers it rolled to put into the holder "Road

-Book "kept by each motorcycle or ATV in front of the pilot or the cars and trucks in the cockpit, in front of the navigator.

As you can see in the picture, in the boxes to the left side of the road map, there are large numbers that stand out from the rest, in the example 187.06, that's the official mileage is running stage and to the right curve is marked precisely right.
Each competitor before beginning the daily stage must put your odometer to zero ("Trip - Master") and then, in career, he will guide you to compare a few miles are traveling with you mark the "Road Book".
The organization puts career at every stage, from 10 to 20 "Way-Point" whose coordinates are indicated on the right side of the road map and the driver using the GPS can check if it is positioned correctly on the race route .
Reading the "CAP" is another important point of the road map, these "CAP" compass directions are displayed digitally, for example: The north is C 360 or C 0, east is C 90, the south is C 180 and the west is C 270.
For example, if the pilot is navigating toward C 50 and the roadmap indicates C 140, means you should turn 90 degrees to the right, if it comes bound C 50, and indicate C 320 will turn left or if one comes in a direction C 100 and indicates that a 1 km is a C 190 does not need more information to know that you will turn right, just 1km from the last reading.
Once you pass through each sector marked, a small box, low mileage, in the example is 3.73, meaning that 3 kilometers and 73 meters will find the next point of importance that the example is a fork in the road to the left and right margin on the icon of a gas pump indicates that it is a Repsol station.
The miles of the small box are those that separate an item from another.
The dangers are on the roadmap with question marks, usually a danger type "!" Is not important for a bike, but if marked "!" Or "!!!" may be a hole, a protrusion large rocks or other hazards on the route and mark well these "double" or "triple" signs can mean the difference between life and death.
Every night, when casting the "Road Book", each pilot brand highlighters of different colors the points that you think will be most problematic or dangerous or where you should be extra careful.
Not have much time to memorize the route, therefore, must learn to decipher the "Road Book" during the race itself, a long stage in a "Road Book" can have up to 35 pages, as you can imagine, this takes many months of hard training to achieve the skills necessary to see the road and follow without getting lost ... and do everything at running speed.
The GPS in the Dakar have a limited role, usually only indicate the CAP and do not signal any arrows in this regard, so the pilot must navigate using only three sources:
- ICO for kilometers
- GPS to locate the CAP
- And the "Road Book" for instructions

ICO is a resettable odometer digital version most suitable for the Dakar is the one with backlighting (back-lighting) and a switch on the handlebars, has its own batteries or you can use power from the same bike or quad, usually carry two pilots, in case you have one.

All instruments of navigation that has a motorcycle.

References:

1. Iritrack Antenna Positioning System (satellite)
2. CAP Repeater Antenna
3. GPS Antenna
4. Trip 1
5. CAP Repeater (center GPS points)
6. "Roadbook" (not shown because they were not yet placed the roll of paper)
7. Trip 2
8. Carrier for GPS
9. Trip 1 Command
10. Command Trip 2
11. Steering Damper

Marc Coma studying the "Road Book" Fiambalá, during which he won the 2009 Dakar.

Three Spanish pilots studying its "Road Books", they are Gerard Farres, Viladoms and Coma in Fiambalá 2009, observe the amount of highlighters to mark using the stage accidents.

Another example of "Road Book"

References:

AG: A gauche (left)

AG et Essence: To the left is naphtha provided by your health care team

AD: A Droite (Right)

TD: Tout Droite (All right)

MVS: Mauvais (bad-risk)

DZ: Debut Zone (Top Zone)

FZ: End Zone (End Zone)

55: The number enclosed within a circle indicates the maximum speed

Here is the Chilean Francisco "Chaleco" Lopez, third in the overall standings of the Dakar Argentina - Chile 2010, seeing their GPS ready for the stage from No. 7

Inside a car where you can see all the navigation instruments has