Genius cannot be overcome by brute force. Stick 500 physicists in a room for 500 years and they won't come up with a theory of relativity or develop fundamental laws of motion; it will take one Einstein or one Newton to do that. Put a million monkeys in front of a million typewriters for a million years and they won't write anything to equal "Hamlet." Brute force is good for some things. It was good for building the pyramids, capturing Iwo Jima, and beating chess grand master Gary Kasparov. But when confronted by real eye-popping genius, a human wave is pretty much a waste of time.

KTM team manager Heinz Kitigadner doesn't believe that. He thought if he could take ten of the best off-road endurance riders in the world, stick them on his highly-prepped machines, and throw them at Stephane Peterhansel and his ancient Yamaha, one of his boys would have to come out on top. Kitigadner already knows what it's like to lose. He started five of these rallies himself and finished none. But in the last few years, KTM has stood on the highest step of the victory platform in one hellish contest after another. They've won everything there is to win. But they haven't won the Paris-Dakar.

So Kitigadner got on the phone. When he was through he had Jordi Arcarons, Giovani Sala, Fabrizio Meoni, Joan Roma, Paul Krause, Kari Tiainen, Thierry Magnaldi, Dirk von Zitzewitz, Richard Sainct, and Eric Bernard in his back pocket. If you've seen these reports over the past couple of weeks, every one of those names is familiar to you. At one time or other they have all made appearances on the leader board. Kitigadner's heroes have won half the stages so far. They've even had the overall lead in the rally at times.

And the closer the rally gets to Dakar, the more Stephane Peterhansel is laughing.

I can make this short. To find out what happened today, read what happened yesterday. All you have to do is substitute Richard Sainct's name for Carlos Sotelo's. Sotelo beat Peterhansel yesterday by 13 seconds; Sainct beat Peterhansel today by 41 seconds. At that rate, by picking up an average of 27 seconds each day, they will catch the Frenchman by the middle of March. Unfortunately for them, the rally will conclude on January 18, which pretty much accounts for the smile on Peterhansel's face lately.

It was a hot, windy day on the 551 km stretch from Timbuktu to Nema in Mauritania, all but eight kilometers of it consisting of the day's stage. The route is described as being "run over a twisty, soft sand piste." "Piste" is a French word that means if you like your car, don't put it on this road because it really isn't a road and never will be. The English-speaking riders --- Haydon, Cox, and American Paul Krause --- were running furiously and well. Then Haydon fell, hurting his wrist. He taped it but it didn't help. He dropped from first to tenth. Cox had fuel problems, caused by heavy wind, and had to back off, dropping from second to fifth. Englishman John Deacon had a relatively poor day by his standards, but it still was good enough for him to move up another notch to seventh overall. He wanted to be in the top ten; he was there a week ago, but he keeps pushing.

Krause alone sailed through without difficulty, taking a fourth on the leg, far and away his best placement to date. He has moved up to 18th overall. He said that he had "great fun" during his seven-hour stage --- blinded by sand, whipped like a red-headed stepchild by the alleged piste, and hammered by wind. You see variations of that happy sentiment expressed by many riders every day. Following my lobotomy, I have had great fun any number of times. I think.

Oscar Gallardo is still having great fun, today taking sixth on the stage and sliding into twelfth overall. Antonio Boluda, standing 16th overall last night, was surely having great fun. Tonight he is fighting for his life. He sustained a terrible fall and was air-lifted to Dakar, comatose. Day after day these riders make it look easy; it isn't. You can be killed out there. You wouldn't be the first.

At the end of the day Kitigadner sat in a hot, fly-specked tent, staring glumly at the leader board. Three of his Magnificent Ten --- Roma, Tiainen, and Magnaldi --- are out, but six of them are in the top fifteen overall. Paul Krause will be there too when the rally is over. It is a remarkable showing for the KTM team. Still, you almost have to feel sorry for Kitigadner. To field just a single rider in this event must cost something close to the gross national product of Chad; multiply that figure by ten and you're talking about some serious money.

Still it eludes him. Still Peterhansel chuckles.

   	1	PETERHANSEL	YAM	FR	0:00:00
   	2	SAINCT		KTM	FR	0:19:25
   	3	MEONI		KTM	IT	0:33:20
   	4	SOTELO		CAG	ES	1:11:22
   	5	HAYDON		KTM	AU	1:29:27
   	6	COX		KTM	AF	2:04:11
    	7	DEACON		KTM	GB	2:47:32
    	8	JIMMINK		KTM	HO	2:55:25
    	9	SALA		KTM	IT	2:56:09
        10	BERNARD		KTM	FR	3:44:45
 	11	VON ZITZEWIT	KTM	AL	3:48:47
        12	GALLARDO	BMW	ES	4:09:53
        13	ARCARONS	KTM	ES	4:16:12
        14	MAYER		KTM	AL	5:32:50
        15	VERHOEF		KTM	HO	5:35:15

© 1998 Iron Butt Association, Chicago, Illinois

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