Cyprus-Forum.com

[Marina2005]

He's got an en suite connected to his office!

[brother]

My boss keeps asking me why i shower so often at work and i just looked at him and walked away, think i am walking on thin ice.

[cannedmoose]

I would have thought your boss would ask you what the hell all this internet traffic on your PC is all about... "what's this Cyprus-Forum?"

Blimey, just noticed, you're about to hit 3,000 Bro'

[metecyp]

Brother, what's your occupation? You must have lots of free time at work to be able to post here constantly. I want to find a job like yours once I graduate, that's why I'm asking

[brother]

I am a office based senior sales and marketing manager and only answer to the MD when i can be bothered, but i am good at my job as i could sell ice to an eskimo.

[cannedmoose]

I'm disappointed. I'd come to the conclusion that you were a porn star Bro' and dipped into Cyprus-Forum between shoots... (so to speak)

[cannedmoose]

but i am good at my job as i could sell ice to an eskimo.

It's Inuit these days Bro', Eskimo is a derogatory term in Nunavut...

[brother]

It's Inuit these days Bro', Eskimo is a derogatory term in Nunavut...

ohhh..o.k

[TVSET]

Better late than never they say

Any of you folks out enjoying this?

Yes indeed. Very much so.
Unfortunately this year I didn't have a chance to visit a lot of stages (like previous years). All I could see was the shakedown, SS4, and both Start and Finish ceremonies. I also went to the Service park.

But it was fun non-the-less.

If so, where's the best (and ideally less crowded) viewpoints to watch on the route.

Best viewpoints are always crowded. I'm talking about things like water splashes, bridges, jumps, tough turns and things like this. Straight lines are usually crowd free.
Also, there is another trend - the closer the stage is to one of the cities, the more people will watch it. So if you want to really enjoy the rally, go out to one of the remote stages. I went to see Lagoudera - Spilia (SS1 and SS4) and there weren't that many at all.

The trick in finding good viewpoints is following the press. Press people usually have stage highlights and legends and they know for sure where all the action will be. The best press team in these is WRC people. They come one week prior to the event and they drive through all the stages looking for interesting spots. You can later walk through the stage, see where most of the press people are hanging around and watch from there.

Planning to be there next year to watch...

This year all stages were exactly as the ones last year. Next year the situation might change though. Check the http://www.cyprusrally.org official website for maps and other information. Usually they post everything about one month before the event.

Next year there might be a change in tracks. Especially those in the Leg 1 (first day). Many drivers complain that this year (and last year) first day was very rough and caused a lot of problems, eliminating many cars. There was also a change in regulations this year. There 16 rallies in WRC season and from this year, each car is allowed to have only 8 engines for the whole season. Not only that, but each engine must be used exactly twice. Before, if I remember correctly, each car could use 1 engine per rally.

Also, remember that the event is usually held from Thursday (Shakedown in the morning, Start ceremony in the evening) until Sunday (Finish ceremony around lunch time). In my opinion, the best days to see the action are Thursday (Shakedown) and all stages of Friday (1st day - Leg 1). After rough stages of Friday many cars are out of the competition or damaged in such ways that drivers have to be careful. Usually on Saturday and almost always on Sunday many cars are going very slow, trying to make it to the Finish line. That's not very exsiting to watch.

A couple of words about the Shakedown. Shakedown is like a test track. Cars have to be adjusted for each rally and the best place to do it is on one of the similar roads. Shakedown is very similar to the stage roads, but it is not a part of the rally. The fun of watching Shakedown is that same cars pass the track several times. When watching Special Stages, most of the fun comes from the first 10 or so cars, which are Priority 1 of WRC. It usuall takes them about 30 minutes to pass in front of you. On Shakedown you can watch them passing for as long as 4 hours! And they drive really fast. This way you have enough time to walk along the road to see same cars from different perspectives - jumps, left turns, right turns, S-curves, straights, etc.

Anyway, with all this said, some may remember the saying: "One picture is a thousand words.", so I'll give you some of those too. All images that I've made this year at WRC are here (separated in folders):

http://mamchenkov.net/photos/2005/2005-05_Cyprus_Rally/

Have fun!

[TVSET]

I was suprised to see a car driven by two girls one from switserland and the other from Germany.I don rememebr exactly but they finished 8th?

Yeah, there are women teams participating too. One of the things that I like so much about rally is that it allows for an equal competition between men and women, as well as different ages (20 year olds can compete against 50 year olds, etc).

This year's podium was interesting. Something happened which you don't see that often - a privateer took the second place in Cyprus Rally 2005. Usually, the first three places are occupied by factory teams from Priority 1. They have a huge budget, expert teams, expensive cars, lots of Service park space, etc. But these year many Priority 1 cars were eliminated due to mechanical problems and Priority 2 cars were really pushing hard. The result was that The OMV World Rally Team had one of their Citroen Xsara WRC cars finishing 2nd overall.

Another thing to note was the people in the car - Manfred Stohl and Ilka Minor. What's so interesting? Well, the co-driver of Manfred was a woman. Woman on WRC podium is a rare beast, except, of course, for the Pirelli girls.

Oh, and for those who notice these kind of things, Ilka is actually blond.
Talk stereotypes now...