Pic: ASO / DPPI
sand was great fun. Biggest dunes I have ever ridden.”
James has a slightly different opinion, “I’m not really
sure what I expected it to be except really, really hard.”
“It lived up to this in every respect,” James laughed.
Asking John a similar question brought an opinion that
all three riders did agree upon, that their very existence
was tested.
“There is nothing fun about Dakar,” he explains.
“What it did do is test my absolute resilience. I did learn
a lot more about myself and what I am capable of.
“I really didn’t think it was going to be so rough, techni-
cal and treacherous. It was simply nasty, dangerous and
hard ass.”
“I think if anything it has made me want to do more
‘epic’ things,” adds James. “I just don’t know what they
are at the moment.”
Ben echoes similar sentiments, “I knew it would be
hard and it was. It was not an overly fun event to do but
the feeling of finishing was unbelievable.”
Little or no support from well financed teams can be
tough on what can only be described as amateur racers,
so how do they prepare for such an event?
“Working full time for my own business and trying to
keep family life stable meant my preparation was fairly
sporadic and unstructured,” shrugged James. “Riding lots
is the key to preparing for an event like Dakar, I didn’t get
to do this so I did whatever I could fit into my schedule.
“Lots of fitness and a bit of mountain biking as it’s
much easier and more accessible for me to do.”
“It is not just physically tough, it is also mentally, spiri-
tually and emotionally tough as well,” John adds.
“There’s a lot of training,” Ben agrees.
“Typical training week would be gym 3 times, cycling
200 kilometres and riding on the Moto at least one day
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