better than the first days,” explains Stephanie. “I find
my rhythm again and I think to myself, I’d probably get a
decent result if I could ride more often.”
There’s another reason … Stephanie dreams of the
Dakar.
Massive dreams, they come at a cost, a life of compro-
mise and going without.
“My day to day life is dictated by and revolves around
trying to race. I have to be very conscious about spending
as it’s quite a pricey sport.
“I also do everything myself. I prepare the bike before
competition, then drive to wherever the race is; Spain,
Greece and Romania this year. At the race I do all my
own maintenance. This means after a long day of racing I
then have to wash my bike, change oil, tyres etc.”
It doesn’t stop there as things like the roadbook, dinner
and showering all take place before Stephanie tries to get
sleep in the back of her van. It’s the life of the privateer
endurance rider.
“I can’t deny I envy the other riders when they arrive at
the bivouac and park their bike with their support team
and head off to a hotel room,” she shrugs with a grin.
“But I love the extra challenge.”
Firsthand experience came just a few weeks back for
round one of the European All Terrain Championship, an
event that challenged Stephanie in ways not previously
experienced. The riding wasn’t necessarily the greatest
challenge, no, that came from navigation.
“I’m still learning,” she shrugs with a grin. “It is inter-
esting to see small differences in roadbooks in different
events.”
Stephanie was riding well, on track for a podium in the
M1 class, until a few small errors on the final day cost her
almost 50 minutes and she dropped to fifth, 26 minutes
behind fourth place. No one was harder on Stephanie
than herself.
“I am quick to lose confidence in myself,” she explains.
“The last day I lost out on the podium due to a couple of
navigation errors.
“Overall I was happy with my position,” she’s hard on
herself as she admits that the second place would’ve been
much better. “I still have lots of room for improvement.”
Her first race in such a field is something that she
shouldn’t be ashamed of; fifth in class (first female), and
59th outright after 14 hours 12 minutes and 26 seconds.
It’s an epic effort and something that Stephanie is confi-
dent will get better. Gym time, bike time and racing with
the roadbook will all help this.
Amazingly Stephanie admits that she isn’t “exactly built
for racing dirt bikes” and needs more work to build her
shoulders and overall strength. It’s this self-analysis that
endears Stephanie to her competitors but also drives her-
Pic: Actiongraphers
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