10 Minutes With: Cyril Despres

This entry is part 19 of 22 in the series Adventure Rider Issue #2

Inside Cyril Despres Five-time Dakar Champion – Words: Craig Tarlington. Images: Jean-Francois Muget

The gloves are off and it’s time for the real fight at last. Cyril Despres’ move to Yamaha has brought with it the opportunity to see him and his toughest competitor, Marc Coma, go head-to-head without the shadow of possible team intervention. Adventure Rider Magazine had a brief but exclusive chat with Cyril to get his thoughts on the coming Dakar, signing with Yamaha and the passions that drive him toward a sixth Dakar victory.

Adv: The big news is your move to Yamaha. It must’ve been a hard decision after so many years with KTM. What can you share about the reasons behind your change?
CD: It has been a big move for me after 13 years with KTM. I really was not looking to moving away from KTM last year. After my fifth Dakar win I started to wonder if it was possible to win again, but with a different manufacturer. Now it will be interesting to see if I, and the small group of people that have come with me, can succeed as a part of a new team. The answer will come at the end of January, after the 2014 Dakar has been run.

My contract with Yamaha is for three years, so we have time to see if we can be as successful as we have been in the past.

Adv: With the move now complete, what are your impressions of the Yamaha setup compared to KTM?
CD: The Yamaha team is made up of all French people and this is quite a nice change. Being able to communicate in my own language is such a benefit. It is easier to discuss and explain things without having to translate, and this will make a difference in the set-up of the bike and also in fine-tuning the team.

The bike is something very different to the bikes I have been riding. The chassis is aluminum, the engine is quite powerful and the fuel injection is really nice and responsive.

I have been learning Kayaba suspension, which is very different to the WP suspension I have been used to. From the testing we have done it is very capable in all different sorts of terrain. I have been surprised how light and agile the bike is compared to the bikes I have been riding. It is really nice to be able to put it into a corner in the place you want it to be. It accelerates and brakes really well. From the first ride on the bike I really appreciated this.

Adv: This will be the first year the world will see you and Marc race head-to-head on different makes of bike, and while there was some separation in the KTM team in past years, how do you feel about this as you head toward the next Dakar?
CD: Of course Marc has been my toughest competitor in recent years. I also think I have been his toughest competitor, so it’s been a real battle. My move to Yamaha will bring a heightened level of competition in Rally Raid racing and the Dakar. If my move to Yamaha is good for the racing, then it will be good for the sport and the Dakar.

Adv: You have five Dakar victories and there’s the potential for more with Yamaha. What do you hope to achieve? Not only for yourself, but also for Yamaha.
CD: Of course I hope to achieve the best record I can. I am still motivated to train for the Dakar. I really don’t need to race a lot of other events prior to the Dakar. I prefer to focus on the biggest race of the year.

My contract with Yamaha is for three years, so we are focused on winning as much as we can. We are not in a hurry, but I can see from the testing we have done that the bike is capable of fighting for the victory. I hope I will be able to do that for Yamaha and myself.

At the moment it’s just unbelievable the amount of effort the team has put in, and this is very motivating for me.

Adv: It seems your relationship with Stéphane Peterhansel is growing. In your mind is there a longer-term view of racing cars?
CD: The relationship with Stéphane has always been good. Stéphane helped me when I started with my first Dakar in 2000. I finished 14th in that race on my XR400. That led to a ride with the Factory BMW Team, and again Stéphane helped me.

So I suppose we have been friends for a long time and he has always been able to give me advice when I needed it.

We have been on holidays together and enjoy similar things in life: relaxing, ski touring and riding bicycles.

Stéphane joked with me that if someone was to equal his record it could be me, because he could see I am capable of doing it. But he said also if I could do it with a blue bike it will be even better, because he has been with Yamaha for many years.

In terms of a longer view, it is already a big challenge and I am not looking at moving to racing cars at the moment. For now I want to focus on winning the Dakar on Yamaha.

Adv: With your move to Yamaha, were you able to bring with you people who were a part of your success at KTM?
CD: Not many, because KTM is based in Austria and my mechanic for the last eight years, Roland, lives close to the factory. It was better for him to stay close to his family and KTM.

Benjamin Melot will be joining the team as my full-time race mechanic. Many people may not realise that in the past the factory supplied the race mechanics for the bigger races, but when it comes to training and riding in smaller events, I still need my own mechanic. Benji has been doing this for me for several years now and he has also been the race mechanic of Ruben Faria. So I am very confident in his ability, and we know each other very well. He is a very talented mechanic and it is also very easy to communicate with him.

My manager Chris Evans will also be a part of this new way forward. In the Dakar he is in charge of media during the race, and at times at other races he takes on the role of team manager.

With regard to Ruben Faria, I have worked with him for many years and he has done a wonderful job in supporting me during the Dakar. When he got the proposal from KTM to take on a full ride and not be a water carrier, I was really happy for him and I pushed him to take the opportunity. It is a good thing for him.

The rest of the people that have supported me for many years have not changed. My doctor, physio, trainer and assistant are the same people and this is helpful. The big change is the bike, and this is the most important change. It will be good to fight for another victory, but this time on the Yamaha.

Adv: Has the move to a French team made it easier for you to explain in your mother tongue what you need? Do you feel you will be more able to explain what you need now?
CD: Yes. My mother language is French so it’s a lot easier.

I realised when we were testing suspension that it was difficult as I had worked with WP for many years and the discussions were in English with them. So most of the technical language I understood was in English. I was thinking in English and translating back to French for the team.

It took a few days, but then I moved back to thinking in French and things got a lot easier. You do not realise how difficult it is to explain yourself and what you need until you see how much easier it is when you can do it in your own language.

Adv: A few years ago you made the trip to Australia and competed in the Australian Safari. You were injured and couldn’t finish the race, but what were your impressions of the event, the level of the riders and competition compared to what you’ve been involved in elsewhere in the world?
CD: It was my first trip to Australia and it was good, but the race is so different to what I am used to riding. When you take the average speed of a race in Europe, perhaps the Sardinia Rally, it is between 30kph and 40kph. It’s a really slow, technical rally with a lot of navigation and a lot of information to process. I remember in the fastest stage of the Australian Safari we were averaging around 120kph. That’s three times faster than rallies in Europe. This was not something I was expecting.

But the good memory was the welcome from the people. If you want to be a rally rider you need to enjoy travelling and riding, even though I did not finish the race, I still enjoyed the experience and the people.

Adv: You’re a rider at the top of his game. What advice can you pass on to younger or up-and-coming riders?
CD: There are some fast young riders that have come on the scene, but as I always say, you do not have to be the fastest to win a rally.

To know how to navigate, to look after the bike, look after yourself, not crashing and needing to be fit enough to do the whole race is really more important than riding fast.

If you can do all this and then ride fast, then you will finish well. But outright speed is not the only key to rallies. It’s the mixture of skills that make not only the racing interesting, it also means you have to use other skills to succeed.