Dakar success for Brit: PH2
Sam Sunderland is the first Briton to ever win the Dakar on two wheels
Dakar success has been something of a curse not only for Brits, who haven't stood on the top step since its inception in 1978, but also Sunderland; he has DNFed three times and didn't even made the start twice due to injury since he first took on the race in 2012.
"I know I can ride as fast as anyone else but I didn't have the experience in terms of navigation and that's 75 per cent of the job. The Dakar is so hard, there are so many factors. The hardest part for me is taking it easy," said Sunderland afterwards. "It's a high speed game of chess, I love it."
This year's Dakar saw 2016 winner Toby Price retire with a broken leg and the Honda team refuel in the wrong location on Stage 4, costing them a one hour time penalty that effectively ended Sunderland's main rival, Joan Barreda's, hopes of victory.
Despite all that was going on around him though, Sunderland rode a near perfect race to take a much deserved, and long overdue, win. Congratulations!
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/gallery/2017/jan...
http://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/2016/january/mc...
I don't personally know the guy, but has got a lot of attention on Social Media over here amongst those that ride in the Desert, and the guys that do know him say he is a top lad. Apparently was practicing on his Dakar bike at the local MotoX track before the Dakar, and was a bit special!
Got mentioned in the national press here:-
http://www.thenational.ae/sport/motorsport/dubais-...
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/gallery/2017/jan...
"This Rally is a scandal, an ecological disaster, satisfying the fantasies of white macho men who think they are adventurous when they're just pathetic cretins... ...This rally is an obscenity and ought to be cancelled for the good of the locals and their archaeological treasures which are being irremediably destroyed by these idiots on bike."
Motors TV had 15 minute daily reports on the Africa Eco rally raid:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa_Eco_Race
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