PHOTO
INSERT CREDIT HERE
sauna for 30 minutes at a time,” says Andreas Mikkelsen,
when we caught up with him after his race. “I drink 12
litres of water a day here. Keeping the concentration at
100%
going 115mph isn’t easy.”
It may be starkly beautiful but the terrain and roads
of Cyprus are also unusually rough and twisting for
international rallying, changing quickly from flat
coastline to forested lowland, to the Troodos mountain
range, with its picturesque villages clinging to the
slopes. Indeed, in the early days of the rally, the races
were more like reliability trials, as most cars failed to
finish after taking a beating on the undeveloped tracks.
As the roads improved and rallying developed as a sport,
Cyprus became a regular fixture in the World Rally
Championship series, featuring stars like Finland’s
Marcus Grönholm and Frenchman Sébastien Loeb, who
scored his 50th WRC win here in 2009.
“
IN CYPRUS, THE
COCKPIT TEMPERATURE
IS 80
O
C,
SO IT’S LIKE
RACING IN A SAUNA
FOR 30 MINUTES
AT A TIME”
The mountains they race on are surprisingly high too.
Mount Olympus is 1,952m and even has four ski lifts,
making this one of the few places in the world where,
from January until April, you can ski in the morning and
lie on the beach in the afternoon. The terrain provides
challenges for the rally teams, as they have to adjust
their suspension, tyres and set-up for each stage.
“
It’s a rollercoaster – really rough – so you need a high,
very stiff car, because you have a lot of compressions. This
raises the car’s centre of gravity, unlike in the Azores,
where there are no bumps and the racing is very direct,”
says Mikkelsen. For those watching, this means more
spectacular drifting turns around corners that send up
impressively large fans of dust.
Recent years have seen the Cyprus Rally take up
residence in the resort town of Paphos, on the island’s
west coast. There you can see the crucible of pressure
that the mechanics and engineers work in, as they repair
and reset broken cars within the 45-minute time limit
before the next stage. “During these events, the service
park is invariably the first place petrol heads visit,” says
Christodoulou. “This is because it provides a unique
chance to get up close to the crews and the cars. It’s
»
DUST DEVILS
03
The crews have just
45
minutes to get
the cars ready for the
next stage, including
cleaning the windows
of road dust
04
Some of the
rally stages are
entirely on
gravel through
the countryside
03
04
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R A L L Y
C Y P R U S
