Bisha, Saudi Arabia – Jan 4, 2025 @ 08:23pm AST

I think there were at least 5 riders taken off in the medical helicopters today which gives a good idea of how nasty the Dakar can be, and it’s only day 1.

The 89 km liaison this morning was cold but bearable. The stage started with a 50km section of deep sand which warmed me up quickly.

The sand tracks then turned into rocks as far as the eye could see. They were nasty and it was difficult to find a track and navigate. The rock section just got worse and worse and there were few almost unrideable passages through some canyons.

At the 115 km mark I hit a massive rock at about 90 km/h and went down hard. I wasn’t pushing that hard, it was just one of those moments that was unavoidable.

My airbag vest deployed, the impact snapped the hand guard off the bike and slightly damaged the lower left front fuel tank.

I spent 5 minutes getting composed again and got back on the bike. By the time I made it to the first fuel stop at the 230 km mark I was feeling a bit better, but the crash knocked me around a bit.

The second half of the stage had more rocks and a lot of deep sandy riverbeds. I did see another rider have a bad crash in the sand. Two of us stopped and helped him but he was unable to finish the stage.

I arrived back in the bivouac with enough time to put on a new set of wheels and tyres, fit new hand guards and give the bike a quick service.

Another sandstorm has hit with some pretty intense winds so I’m laying in the tent ready for a good night’s sleep before the huge 48hr chrono stage that starts tomorrow morning.

I’m pretty happy to get through stage 1 without too much drama. The navigation was extremely difficult, I rode a lot of the stage by myself and made very few mistakes.

I’m sitting 5th in the Veterans class, 16th in “Original by Motul” and 60th in Rally 2.