Dakar Diary: Rebuilding bike and body

Ha’il, Saudi Arabia – Jan 10, 2025
Day 6 – Ha’il Rest Day

So far it’s been a mental and physical nightmare. Many riders are out due to injuries and quite a few have just withdrawn due to the difficulty.

I have a few injuries now causing me some issues but hopefully a rest today will help out.

My trip over the bars and face planting hard in the sand on day 2 has broken my nose and both eye sockets are pretty sore. The long nasty spiky thorns have shredded my arms and hands and I have bruising in places I never thought possible.

My hands are swollen and look like gorilla’s hands with no knuckles and my butt is sore from the constant pounding from the seat.

But my biggest challenge is that my left bicep tendon has detached and I have limited strength now. When I crashed on day 4 I had to get assistance from another rider to pick my bike up.

I guess these are all minor issues when I see friends being airlifted out in neck braces and unconscious.

This is the brutal reality of the Dakar!

It’s a great mental boost now to have my wife Katie and close friends David and Cynthia here in Ha’il. They will be following the race for the next seven days.

The bike has taken a beating too, and today we need to rebuild it. The clutch is burnt out, it needs a new chain and sprockets, new axles, a full service and we need to fit new tyres to both sets of wheels.

Unfortunately, I had to make the decision on day 3 to get outside assistance to repair the bike after it stopped in the dunes.

For this I received a stage penalty of 17 hrs and was also put out of the ‘Original by Motul’ overall classification.

The good news is I’m still classified in the Rally 2 and Veterans classes, and also in the daily classification of ‘Original by Motul’.

Every day is just getting harder and harder. So far I have been pushing hard enough to finish every special stage in daylight and I really feel for the 20 or 30 riders who are riding the dunes in the dark and coming in late at night.

Tomorrow we start the second half of the race with a 829 km day. It will be an early start in what I expect to be the coldest morning we will encounter.