Dakar Diary: There was no way out

Bisha, Saudi Arabia – Jan 6, 2025

Last night I slept on the ground wrapped in a survival blanket. It was cold. And today the bike failed.

There were about 20 bikes at our camp last night, and we got away at 6.45 am just as the sun was coming up.

We were straight into the big and steep dunes the other riders decided not to attempt the night before, and we were riding directly into the sun. The wind was strong and blowing away any visible tracks that we could have followed, so the navigation was again very tricky.

My airbag vest wasn’t working after last night’s mishap, so today I had to be very careful not to crash. I got through the dunes without any issues.

On the other side of the dunes we were then back into rocks and stones. Surprisingly I felt good on the bike in the rocks today and rode with my long time Indian friend Ashish. We had a great pace all morning and caught a few riders from the previous day.

After the first refuel stop we entered another 90km dune section. These were white dunes and very soft, really chopped out and dangerous.

It was slow going but I was managing to catch more riders and making good progress. Until …

At kilometre 787, in the middle of the dunes, my bike just stopped.

I was stuck deep between two dunes and spent an hour trying to get the bike going. I thought the engine had seized or locked up.

There was no way out other than in a helicopter.

A medical chopper somehow landed in between the dunes to make sure I was okay. After another 30 minutes we decided to leave the bike and I left in the helicopter back to their refuel point and later got a ride back to the bivouac.

My bike will be retrieved from the dunes and it should be back in the bivouac around midnight.

I will have a late night trying to fix the bike and hopefully I will be ready to go in the morning.

If I can’t repair the bike tonight the worst case scenario is that I will have to work on it tomorrow and take a stage penalty, then I can rejoin for the marathon stage.