Just a few weeks after returning from the Albania Rally, the CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team riders set off for the Breslau Rally in Poland. This is one of Europe's biggest rally-raid events, bringing together a large number of highly capable athletes. Antanas Kanopkinas and Adomas Gančierius, who will be competing in next year's Dakar Rally, will spend a week competing among almost 40 ATV’s, aiming not only to get the best possible result but also to gain even more experience.
The team said that the journey to the rally went smoothly, and that the heavy rains during the hot weather were refreshing. During the briefing on Saturday, the organisers warned the riders that the navigation would be very tricky, but this did not scare the riders, as the ability to navigate quickly is especially important in this rally. The first days of the race will take place at the military training ground near Zagane in west of Poland, and on Sunday the riders had to complete a seven-kilometre prologue.
"Today we started after ninety bikes, and since it was raining, there were already a lot of ruts on the track. The course is very big and the tracks are very wavy and slippery. You need a lot of concentration, because it is quite dangerous. The navigation is as always in Breslau - difficult and dangerous, lots of small roads, but so far so good," said A. Gančierius after finishing fourth among the quads in prologue.
However, today's positions will determine from which place the participants will start on Monday, in the rally's first speed section. The quads will start together with bikes.
Another team member, A. Kanopkinas, had a little navigational error today, which was reflected in the results table, but he said that everything is still ahead of him: "I was unable to avoid a navigational error on the first day. As the organisers said, it's really difficult. I finished in 23rd position, so now I will have to concentrate on correcting today's mistakes in the next five days."
Both of the team's quads will have their tyres changed today as the tracks are particularly slippery and different from the last two rallies, according to the riders.
Five days of rallying in Poland aways members of CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team. Two and a half hundred competitors has started here, with 39 capable riders in the quad category.