Pic: Ben Dubbeld
not just about racing as fast you can, competitors need to
find the route and make sure they stick to it as best they
can. Get lost, and the competitors could be left on their
own.
“How the hell am I going to get through this with
my shitty way point nav skills,” says John of his initial
thoughts about the Dakar. He laughs now, knowing that
somehow, he got to the end.
It’s a condition of the Dakar that all competitors accept
as a risk yet, all competitors do so with the knowledge
that they are never really alone as all competitors and ri-
vals have a spirit of adventure that see them always there
to help a fellow Dakar competitor that might be in danger
or under stress.
“For the first time in a Rally I teamed up,” Ben explains
with an almost sense of shame. He’d teamed up with
Nate Dog from the USA for the last 2 days of the Dakar
and they rode together.
“I was getting pretty tired and it’s about 30 to 40% eas-
ier to ride with someone,” continued Ben. “You can take
turns in leading and when you’re riding Off Piste behind
someone it’s easy to follow their head to read what’s
happening with the terrain and also just switch off from
navigating.”
It’s a sentiment that is acknowledged by James, while
he did take part in a class designed to be alone, he says
TRAVERSE 14
Pic: Frederic Le Floc'h / DPPI