PORTRAIT: Mike Thomsen ...
"I'VE ALWAYS FELT
SAFE AND WELCOME"
Fiona Davies & Traverse
Mike Thomsen’s not always the easiest guy to get hold
of.
While you might run in to him in the Motolombia
office in Cali, busily prepping for the next tour, or proud-
ly inspecting his shiny fleet of two-wheeled tourers, he’s
just as likely to be off grinding some gnarly goat track in a
remote corner of the Andes.
Mike was gracious enough to lend us some time to
answer a few questions about some of his epic rides, and
his experience leading tourists on two wheels through
wildest South America.
So, if you’ve ever wanted to know how a gringo from
Denmark ended up running Colombia’s longest running
motorcycle tour and rental company, here we are …
At the time of speaking with Mike he had just returned
from the Intercontinental Rally (2019) for his second at-
tempt at the desert classic, his dream has always been to
compete in the Dakar, perhaps not so easy now that it has
moved from his home continent of South America.
“This was my second go at racing in the Sahara Desert,”
Mike explains. “In 2015, I finished in 11th position.
“This year I had a hard crash on Stage 1. I was strug-
gling with a few injuries, but I pressed on.”
As with most racers who take on such events, Mike was
to later find that he’d injured himself much more than
first thought.
“I found out I had damaged the posterior crossed
ligaments in my left knee and had two fractures on my
thumb.”
TRAVERSE 35