Dakar 2019: The Wish

Adventure Rider Issue #38

• It’s what we do – adventure motorbike riding tours magazine news events
• Dakar 2019: The Wish
• Yamaha Ténéré 700: First Aussie Ride!
• Under African Skies – australian adventure motorbike magazine
• Ducati Multistrada Enduro 1260
• Congregations (NSW and WA)
• Royal Enfield Himalayan – adventure motorbike magazine – australia
• Kimberley Dreaming
• Ural Adventure Ride = australian adventure motorbike magazine
• Bali Tour 2019 – Perth Adventure Riders
• Scott Britnell
• Window Shopping
• Fathers Day = australian adventure motorbike magazine
• Blue Banger Run = adventure motorbike riding
• KLRRR
• Best Job In The World
• Tubeless Bliss with Miles Davis
• Retyrement with Andy Strapz
• Food For Thought with Karen Ramsay
• Checkout
• Fit Out

Dale Margetts followed the Dakar in 2015 and saw the start in 2018. This trip was bigger than both.

The dream come true

Some may remember me following Dakar a few years ago (See issue #16 – ed). With some good friends I set out to repeat the experience at the 2019 event.

Four of us flew out on Boxing day, 2018.

Our fifth partner for the tour – ‘Baggs’, or Craig – arrived on January 4. With his reshaped prostate still on the mend he spent a lot of time standing up on his hired CRF450. He explained sitting was like the vibration of the three tuning forks in the Yamaha symbol right up to his tonsils. Plus, it worsened the claret he was still peeing (which none of us wanted to see).

One dust storm was so bad the only way to see was to wear goggles and cover up to stop getting sandblasted.
Toby made his way across for a chat and some photos.

We made our way to the Dakar start area with all the bikes, cars, SXS and trucks to catch up with Toby Price.

He was at the Red Bull stand signing items with Sam Sunderland, Laia Sanz and Matthias Walkner. He was rapt we were wearing his T-shirt with the Dakar bike on the front, and we got a big, “Yeah, boys! They’re wearing my shirt!” as he pointed us out to the other Red Bull riders. We even featured on his Instagram.

While we were at the Red Bull stand we were lucky enough to have our helmets signed by Dakar legends Stéphane Peterhansel, Cyril Despres and Carlos Sainz.

At the start the Peruvians thought we were competitors and they put their kids in front and took so many photos it was unbelievable. It was just continuous. But the best was when Baggs was interviewed on how hard the race is. Maybe his rough exterior makes him look like a natural Dakar competitor.

Three Honda XRE300s, a CRF450 and an XR650.

Big hit

Our tour was organised by Around The Block moto adventures. The company was helping an Aussie, James Ferguson. What a chilled bloke! No obstacle was going to stop James from finishing. At one transit stage he hit something on the road, came off and damaged his bike quite badly.

“ The best was when Baggs was interviewed on how hard the race is. Maybe his rough exterior makes him look like a natural Dakar competitor.”

To his credit he got it back to the bivouac and was able to rebuild it with some help from other Malle Moto riders and finish.

It was great to be part of his journey.

The first Dakar bike we saw was a couple of motels down from us and belonged to Richard Main, bike number 147. Richard was an English rider who we mistook for a mechanic. He was a gun, but his Dakar turned out to be painful.

First he was hit by a truck and lucky not to be injured, but around the second-last stage he had a big crash, breaking his pelvis and spending eight weeks in hospital.

We also sighted the Commodore ute entered by Steve Riley and Trevor Hanks. The effort to get that ute to the start line was incredible. It was a shame to see Riley airlifted out with a back injury in the second week.

Waiting on the dunes.

See sea rider

Our hire bikes were three Honda XRE300s, a CRF450 and an XR650. The 650 only lasted half a day, and that was just road riding from Lima to Parcuis. To the credit of the hire company they had another 650 ready to go the next day.

Riding the sand dunes was so much fun. Imagine looking at the highest building in a capital city, and that’s the height of a dune. The challenge was to get to the top of it.

Yeah!

I rode with Aleck and Jarrod on one continuous monster dune and could feel the grins under their helmets and see their eyes wide open.

Were we really doing this?

One lot of dunes was maybe 1.5km from the sea and we were riding on seashells. Heaps and heaps of seashells, and they were everywhere. We wondered how long since the sea had been there.

Maybe 1000 years?

We caught up with Toby Price at the end of the second stage. What a sight:

Sam Sunderland, Matthias Walkner, Adrien van Beveren and Toby Price all coming down from the top of one of the highest sand dunes and all just seconds apart.

What a sight: Matthias Walkner, Sam Sunderland, Toby Price and Adrien van Beveren.

Big dunes

After they’d checked in and their road books were removed, bagged and sealed (we weren’t sure why), Toby made his way across to us for a chat, some photos and signatures on our helmets. Well…all of us got helmets signed except for Daz, but he managed to get his signed on another stage. Thanks TP!

Daz wasn’t leaving the Dakar without our Aussie hero’s signature, and it really made our day.

We saw Rodney Faggotter, but unfortunately his Yamaha had problems on the next stage and he was out of the Dakar and on a plane back to Australia before we could catch up with him.

We all really got the taste of riding big dunes and had grins from ear to ear. We still couldn’t believe we were doing it.

Aussie James Ferguson came off and damaged his bike quite badly. He got it back to the bivouac, rebuilt it with some help from other Malle Moto riders, and finished.
Aussie rider Ben Young rode with a fractured hand and still finished.

Young gun

One morning we were on our bikes at 4.30am and there were Dakar bikes flying past us heading to the start. One rider gave us a fist pump as he passed. When we arrived at the start area Toby Price came up and asked if it was us on the highway because he’d seen an Aussie flag on a bag.

How observant is TP! It was a name tag with an address on one side and an Aussie flag on the other. The tag was about 70mm by 150mm and the bag was on the roof of a HiLux, flapping around in the wind.

It turned out to be the stage Ricky Brabec DNFed with a mechanical failure, and watching his bike brought back to the start hanging under the helicopter was an epic sight.

We also caught up with another Aussie rider, Ben Young.

Later on we noticed him on the side of the highway after dropping off his bike at the start. We were already in a taxi going back to our motel, but we got the taxi to pull over so we could give him a lift. He’s a goer and a wealth of information, and he explained how to get into the bivouac.

It worked a treat! Then he got us beers at the riders’ tent in the bivouac, road maps and the golden pass to the podium party.

He also rode a lot of the Dakar with a fractured hand and still finished.

“ He also rode a lot of the Dakar with a fractured hand and still finished..”

A stage start.

Watch it

Numerous times our tour guide put us in a prime position to watch the rally go by, but on one particular occasion a dust storm was so bad the only way we could see was to have our goggles on and we had to cover ourselves to stop getting sandblasted. This was also the day we decided to stay and watch every Aussie competitor go past.

Seven hours after Toby Price flew through we saw our only Aussie quad rider, John Maragozidis, and boy, did we give him a huge cheer.

When we caught up with John at the bivouac he couldn’t believe we’d been out there and he got a huge lift from seeing us. He did finish, but best of all he gave us a bag of almonds from his farm in South Aussie.

We outlasted all the other nationalities on tour this day. Due to the dust storm they all went back to the motel except for an American, Joe Olson. He joined the tour on the second week and really liked our determination to stick it out. He did get a little soft and sat in the 4WD for a while to get out of the sandblasting, but he may have been still sore from being rear-ended by a taxi on the highway and going for a slide on the asphalt. The Peruvian mechanics straightened the subframe of his bike with a huge rock on the side of the highway.

Joe did enjoy our carry on and stayed with us for the rest of the race. He gave the five of us a free watch each from his company, Tree Hut (check out the website).

Nicola Dutto, the first paraplegic rider on a two-wheeled bike. The Dakar association said he could enter as long as he had three support riders with him.
Riding on seashells.

To a T

The pub we stayed at when we rode in Australia was the Crown Hotel in Urbenville, and we took some T-shirts across to get photos with them on around competitors. A competition start-ed between us to swap them for some-thing from a rider and I may have won.

This is what happened.

At the bivouac I was lucky enough to catch up with Andrew Short. While he was cleaning his helmet during the chat, I mentioned our competition. Andrew was great. He came back with the jersey he’d worn that day, signed it for me and posed for photos with him holding the shirts.

But to my surprise he then said, “Man, I really don’t need your T-shirt. Take it back and see what else you can get.”

I thanked him and wished him well with the rest of the Dakar.

A few days later at the podium, after all the bikes had been presented with trophies and medals, we were drinking beer,eating food and watching all the competitors being presented with their trophies. We happened to be leaving the podium party when the whole KTM and Husqvarna group was also leaving – I mean the whole team: mechanics, doctors, managers, riders and the big guns…but no TP. Jarrod had seen Sam Sunderland and we went over for a chat. I mentioned our T-shirt competition and to my surprise he said, “Okay. I’ve had a cou-ple of drinks. Why not?’ He took off his jer-sey, put on the Crown Hotel shirt,signed
his jersey and we had photos taken. But just as the photos were being taken a voice called out, “That’s my T-shirt.” It was Andrew Short with a big smile on his face It was the beginning of a big night.

The Malle Moto area.

Dessert racer

Laia Sanz was there as well, and somehow we were able to have a joke and get pho-tos with Sam, Matthias, Laia and Andrew.Laia then showed me the video of her shaving Toby’s head.While this was happening a loud voice demanded, “What are you Aussie boys up too?” It turned out to be KTM race-team boss Heinz Kinigadner. He went on to say, “Okay then, Aussie boys. Get in the bus.
We’ll shout you all drinks and dinner with us.”

Daz was handed Laia’s trophy to hold and we just talked to everyone, finding out who they were. They were all so friendly and down-to-earth, just like Aussies.

At the bar in the hotel Matthias insisted on shouting Jarrod and Alec.

Team manager Jordi Viladoms was relaxed and we were able to ask him many questions on the challenges of Dakar. I really believed he was glad to just stop, have a drink and have a chat with us, but we didn’t miss the opportunity in getting him to sign our TP shirts.

The author (left) was lucky enough to catch up with Andrew Short.
Start of a stage with Toby.

We mingled with the team until TP turned up and was rapt we were there sharing the occasion. We grabbed some photos with him and the Dakar trophy, then Jordi invited us to dinner across the road at a Michelin-star restaurant.

Talk about steak, wine and ‘wow’…

On our way to the restaurant Pablo Quintanilla rolled up in a wheelchair with his leg in plaster and we all gathered around him and wished him all the best with his recovery. That was at about 1.00am. It was great to see the camaraderie between Price and Quintanilla. TP signed PQ’s leg cast and PQ signed TP’s head, recently shaved by teammate Laia Sanz.

“ So what did the person who’d just paid the bill for all of us say to the person who’d just won the Dakar for KTM? “Let’s have ice cream.” ”

The Toyota team was also there celebrating its Dakar win. Driver Nasser Al-Attiyah came over to the KTM table to congratulate KTM on its victory and shook everybody’s hand, even us Aussie ring-ins. What a gentleman.

celebrating its Dakar win. Driver Nasser Al-Attiyah came over to the KTM table to congratulate KTM on its victory and shook everybody’s hand, even us Aussie ring-ins. What a gentleman.

Dinner was all paid for by someone at KTM and then we heard someone demand, “I would like some ice cream.”

It was TP.

So what did the person who’d just paid the bill for all of us say to the person who’d just won the Dakar for KTM? “Let’s have ice cream for everybody!” Out came the credit card again it was really good ice cream. Thanks TP.

Team manager Jordi Viladoms was glad to just stop and have a drink and a chat.

Close to home

We graciously thanked the people for a great night, the drinks and dinner.

They replied, “You’re welcome. Now let’s go to the Red Bull party!” We jumped into the taxis to the Red Bull party, but by then we were stuffed and it was time for bed.

There were some big challenges faced.

Think about Bike number 143, Nicola Dutto, the first paraplegic rider, not on a quad, but on a two-wheeled bike. The Dakar association said he could enter as long as he had three support riders with him. They were doing so well until one of the support rider’s bikes broke down around stage six. Just think of all the logistics they had to work through!

Go Nicola.

It was a huge trip, and on a very personal note I want to dedicate the story to Coral Wall, who we miss. Adventure riders love to share their stories, especially with family. Let’s encourage our loved ones to have breast and prostate checks done regularly so we can continue sharing with the most important people of all.

Celebrating with the KTM team.
A huge spectacle.