Table of contents
- Swank Rally di Sardegna Three-day rally over 1,200 kilometers
- Swank Rally di Sardegna with Franco Picco
- Swank Rally is not a Mediterranean motorcycle occupational therapy
- Participation in the Swank Rally Sardegna
Bearoll
30th pictures
Fotografica Sestrieres
1/30
The Swank Rally di Sardegna is one of the last events in Europe where you can enjoy the romantic at a reasonable cost, …
Bearoll
2/30
… can still celebrate analog navigation technology with paper.
Bearoll
3/30
A rally that attracts sport enduros, youngtimers, 125cc and studded Vespa alike.
Bearoll
4/30
The event lasts three days and over 1,200 kilometers.
David Zimmermann
5/30
Trip master, road book holder and GPS are essential.
Bearoll
6/30
Because despite the hipster appearance, the Sardinia rally is navigated like the professionals.
Fotografica Sestrieres
7/30
Technical and driving veterans of the scene can be found at the Swank Rally.
Bearoll
8/30
The gravel roads meander through abandoned ore mines in southwest Iglesiente.
David Zimmermann
9/30
The post-apocalyptic atmosphere exerts a magical attraction on many participants.
Fotografica Sestrieres
10/30
Factory cagiva, …
Fotografica Sestrieres
11/30
… Rally Vespa and …
Bearoll
12/30
… Honda XR 600 compete against a team …
Fotografica Sestrieres
13/30
… the Yamaha subsidiary in Italy.
Fotografica Sestrieres
14/30
But also two-valve GS …
Fotografica Sestrieres
15/30
… or modern sport enduros are a big part of the mix.
Fotografica Sestrieres
16/30
Almost anything is allowed in this rally.
Bearoll
17/30
Please don’t cheat: stamp card and …
David Zimmermann
18/30
… Checkpoints like at professional events.
Bearoll
19/30
The drivers take the times of the special stage themselves.
Bearoll
20/30
Alberto de Bernardi wins the colorful Swank Rally and is awarded by the organizer Renato Zocchi (right).
David Zimmermann
21/30
On the same evening we go back to the ferry.
Fotografica Sestrieres
22/30
Sardinia lies like a small continent in the turquoise waters of the Mediterranean.
Bearoll
23/30
Nowhere else can wide beaches be so wonderfully combined with wonderful winds of the road that spiral up to almost 2,000 m above sea level.
Bearoll
24/30
There are only a few places where thirst for action and leisure can be combined so casually.
Fotografica Sestrieres
25/30
Intoxicating ascents and descents alternate with a leisurely stroll to fantastic views.
Bearoll
26/30
Impressions Swank Rally Sardinia
David Zimmermann
27/30
Impressions Swank Rally Sardinia
Fotografica Sestrieres
28/30
Impressions Swank Rally Sardinia
Fotografica Sestrieres
29/30
Impressions Swank Rally Sardinia
Bearoll
30/30
Impressions Swank Rally Sardinia
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Swank Rally Sardegna: 3-day rally over 1,200 km
Swank Rally di Sardegna
Three-day rally over 1,200 kilometers
The Swank Rally di Sardegna is one of the last events in Europe where you can still celebrate the romantic, analogue navigation technology with paper at a reasonable cost. A three-day rally over 1,200 kilometers that attracts sport enduros, youngtimers, 125cc and Vespa with studded tires alike.
Klaus Nennewitz
04/16/2021
For incurably romantic rally fans who dreamed of the Dakar back in the eighties, the Swank Rally di Sardegna now has the original heroes from back then, in real life and to touch. Like Franco Picco. He was three times on the podium at Lago Rosa in Senegal, never as a winner, but at 65 he is still doing what he is probably best at: crossing entire continents and countries with a road book in front of the handlebars.
Swank Rally di Sardegna with Franco Picco
At Swank 2020 you could race with him on a Gilera RC 600. Or with the 1990s Cagiva Elefant, Edi Orioli’s winning machine and now piloted by Filippo Bassoli, ex-boss of Deus Ex Machina and marketing director of MV Agusta since 2020. After the prologue on the dry runway, it was over for # 92, then the national sanctuary came back to the museum.
Information and registration for the Swank Rally at adventureriding.it or in German at motourismo.com
Italy, you have it better (sometimes)! The lightness of being a motorsport can still be found here on every corner to touch and participate, in addition to other classics such as the Yamaha Tenere 600, Honda XL 600 LM and an Aprilia Tuareg 250, there are also custom bikes such as a Yamaha XSR 700 Scrambler from Deus.
Participation of a Vespa 125 Primavera
The starting field is completed by some modern Dakar pilots such as Alessandro Botturi. But the 25-year-old Italian Henry Favre shoots the bird on his Vespa 125 Primavera: The young hero fails with the low engine power at the prologue on the steep ascents of the former Motocross World Championship track at the Milan Malpensa airport of the same name. No problem, the Olympic spirit counts, and the Italian rules of the game would never ban someone from the sandpit with so much “Passione”, so passion is there. The boy is capable of suffering and crossed the American continent on a Ciao 50 moped in 2018!
Fotografica Sestrieres
Henry Favre on his Vespa 125 Primavera. What matters is the Olympic spirit.
Don’t always take yourself so seriously and just be there for fun – that’s what they all say. But when the marveling at and groping at the historic rally bikes is over, the road book pages are glued together and finally placed in the prayer wheel in front of the handlebars and the first button on the trip master is finally pressed … then at the latest the rally fever is triggered and the virus leaves everyone who once you have driven motorcycle races, never go again.
The holiday season is over, the Corona panic is taking a break
To warm up, the organizer and Dakar veteran Renato Zocchi sends the 80 or so participants from Milan over 280 kilometers through the rice fields of the provinces of Pavia and Alessandria and finally over the mountains of the Apennines to the port of Genoa. Shortly before the stage finish there is the first special test, stony and demanding over 13 kilometers, then the nightly ferry passage to Porto Torres follows. A holiday feeling sets in, Picco tells at the bar about the first stormy crossings from Sète to Algiers on the first day of January in the 1980s. After several rainy days the empty holiday island welcomes us with autumn coolness. The holiday season is over, the Corona panic is just taking a break, and on the dust-free stage towards the southwest, the Mediterranean maquis beguiles the senses with lavender, thyme, myrtle and rosemary.
The 294 kilometers to Arborea are tough, especially the 25-kilometer special stage in the “Foresta di Burgos”, the largest contiguous forest area on the island. Between the cork oaks, aspirants for the rally world championship title lost their way years ago because countless paths cross the area and you have to navigate with the classic road book and trip master to an accuracy of ten meters like in a maze. In racing fever, most of the favorites follow in the footsteps of those in front until they are all in nowhere and nothing works. A classic beginner’s mistake that even professionals are not immune to. The adrenaline clouds the senses, the emotions boil when someone drives in front, and in no time the junction is missed and you drive – together – deeper and deeper into nowhere.
Swank Rally is not a Mediterranean motorcycle occupational therapy
In order to get back on the right track, the hotspurs take a shortcut that will come to light during the evaluation in the evening through the installed trackers. Due to the three-hour time penalty for all those involved, a small Vent-Baja 125cc takes the top of the ranking, because Alberto de Bernardi navigated the labyrinth of cork oaks without errors. After the liaison stage over 180 kilometers, most of the drivers are initially flat, especially those who use the Swank Rally as Mediterranean motorcycle occupational therapy. Exactly the right playground to break out of the glittering business world of Milan with its beautiful and super chic people. In the capital of Lombardy, nothing is cooler than a dirty machine, if possible a classic with off-road tires, parked in front of the office on Monday morning. During the coffee break, the licked colleagues freeze in awe when the starting gun is fired “Bench racing” he follows: “You know, I could have done the Dakar easily if I had really wanted to, but my career was more important to me, the machine has to be moved occasionally …” Exactly, people have to feel each other again!
Bearoll
On the firebreaks in Sardinia between the Mediterranean bushes there are an unbelievable number of branches that sometimes lead directly to a steep ascent or descent
And you can really feel yourself here, the day-filling stages give you the opportunity to merge with the machine, become one with the motorcycle. Body-mind machine on the search for the right path, with the sea always in view as a haven of calm. Because driving according to the roadbook can be extremely stressful: On the firebreaks in Sardinia between the Mediterranean bushes there are an unbelievable number of junctions that sometimes lead directly to a steep ascent or descent. That is why concentrated navigation is so important, here it is not just about right-left, but also about top-bottom. Navigation in 3-D, so to speak.
Again and again I catch myself repeating the number of kilometers in the next picture out loud so as not to miss the junction. When the landscape and the road book intersect again, there is relief, but then the next picture for the scavenger hunt comes again! Only at the end of the stage does the tunnel vision widen and my head is completely empty, as if I had spent the whole day doing cost calculations in Excel.
Short-term memory in overflow, game over in the cockpit
The others feel the same way. In the age of Google Maps, many participants completely underestimated manual navigation: Hardly any of the rally amateurs have the patience to concentrate on the instruments for a long time, at some point the brain gets out and can no longer indicate the tripmaster’s indications with the pictograms link to the road book. Right suddenly becomes left and the decimal places start to move, short-term memory in overflow and game over in the cockpit! Classic rallying has become an ancient art that few really master in these extremely short-lived times. Analog stress from another time, the special stages are so short that the road book’s electric motor hardly gets really warm.
Finally a relaxed holiday mood on the third stage in southwest Iglesiente, the wild region rich in natural resources. Mining was carried out here from Roman times until the 1970s. Today almost all mines are closed and shape the picture of the rugged mountain ranges and cliffs that suddenly drop to the sea. After the short special test over twelve kilometers, there is time for not entirely harmless explorations in the old mines of Montevecchio and Ingurtosu, which are in danger of collapsing. The protective fences around the facilities have long since fallen victim to the ravages of time and the post-apocalyptic atmosphere exerts a magical attraction on many participants. The relaxed schedule finally leaves some leisure time for the last lunch, right by the sea in one of the few restaurants that are still open.
Fotografica Sestrieres
Penetrating continuous rain sometimes turns the slopes into slides.
Penetrating continuous rain spoils the romance on the last 80 kilometers to the finish. Some of the slopes have turned into slides, and the riders of the heavy adventure bikes are particularly challenged. On the other hand, the slopes on the island are dust-free on the last day of the rally and perfect grip really invites you to accelerate. The last special stage over seven kilometers through the dunes of Bosa Marina is tough: while the first drivers can enjoy the extraordinary traction on the sodden sand for a brisk heating company, the stragglers only find deep tracks on the rollercoaster-like route, the especially hard on the drivers of the big machines.
In the end a 125cc wins
Later, during the coffee break in Milan, the stories will sound like you’ve just crossed the Libyan Murzuk … The real hero of the Swank Rally 2020 is Alberto de Bernardi, who crossed the finish line first with the small 125cc vent with a seven-minute lead saved. At the prologue in Malpensa everyone had sworn that they were not interested in the results, just came for fun. To be beaten by a 125cc in the end – but that hurts most of them. How are you going to explain this to your colleagues in Milan??
Participation in the Swank Rally Sardegna
In 2017, the custom forge Deus ex Machina organized based on the “Distinguished Gentlemen’s Ride” the first editions of the Swank Rally: short enduro events in the heart of Milan, with unusual clothes and bikes that are as unsuitable as possible on industrial sites or inside the high-speed oval of Monza. The first Swank Rally di Sardegna will start in 2019 together with Renato Zocchi, one of the first Italian Dakar participants (1984) and organizer of the Rally di Sardegna (1984 to 1993). “Swank” By the way, stands for “chic”, “splurge” or “Show-off”.
September 28th to October 3rd, 2021
You start either in the discipline “Swank Experience” (open to all drivers and machines, no rating, navigation with GPS or road book) or in the sporting categories “Swank Rally R 1” as “Swank Rally R 2” for machines that were produced before or after the year 2000. the “rally”-Categories require a competition license from the national motorsport federation and road book navigation, the timekeeping is done autonomously, each driver enters the start and finish time on his or her own stamp card. The next rally is to take place from September 28th to October 3rd, 2021. The price (for early bookers from 890 euros) includes: road book, GPS track, ferry with cabin, overnight stays / half board in Sardinia and professional assistance on the way. Information and registration are available at adventureriding.it or in German at motourismo.com, Cooperation partner of our MOTORRAD action team.
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