BB's Dakar dream - Bring on Dakar 2014

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BlueBull2007

Bachelor Dog
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AJS (all models)
Yours truly on the left fooling with Aussie Dean Nuttal in the Stage 12 bivouac.
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A little bit plump but nothing that a bit of rally cannot quickly sort. Pretending to be tough but in reality wondering in the photo if the Dakar really is for me.

My heart thumping here as I type this. Big time. I want to do this, but the doubts creep in too. It not easy to make a public commitment like this, just ask tau.

I want to do it. Badly. Mrs BB is very scared I will not come back. She is not keen at all and is trying very hard to discourage me. I understand this but I still want to do it. Things are not going well. It is like that with Dakar, nothing about it is easy. Even the stuff at home. Then there is the money; its a crap load, no other way to say it. She is even more unhappy about all our savings disappearing into the Dakar hole. Thankfully after seeing the finish and having had dinner with Birchy, Greg & Darryl not to mention meeting Geniel, I think she is warmed a little to the idea. She told me "After seeing the riders faces I can understand why you want to do it." Its not yes, but we are getting there. I think. I hope!

Dakar 2012 was going to be my Dakar. I planned this in Feb 2010, with no previous racing experience under the belt. I finished my first and only rally, the Dos Sertoes in August 2010 and was pretty happy with that, considering I rode the last two days with three broken bones in my foot. I came home to sell the company I worked for to the Koreans, and that was not so lekker, so I ended up leaving and did not get another job until April last year. It is a high stress job that required all of my time so I knew then that it was not going to happen in 2012 because you need time to train. Like 20-30 hours per week.

So instead I followed the last four stages of the 2012 Dakar on my big bike. I saw a lot of things, horrible things. I will still do the RR but I saw pain, crappy conditions, exhausted men, and boisterous spectators.  It was pretty unpleasant most of the time. The distances covered each day are huge.  Not much glory out there eating other peoples dust I can tell you that. Its not a walk in the park, nor is it romantic or beautiful like you see in the helicopter shots. I must be honest, when I was out there watching them coming in at the end of another long day I thought those people were mad, and I felt that I would not do it. Just following them to the viewpoints was pretty draining. I was shocked by my thoughts, because I think about riding Dakar every other day. Had my dream died out there this January?

Occasionally I saw the guys really enjoying it out there. Its those bits of the Dakar that I want to do. But to experience it you have to do everything. Then there are the other things: On this trip the only I time got to eat Bivouac food I got gyppo guts. There is politics and silly little rules to deal with. There are some pretty unpleasant and miserable people in the Dakar too, both racers, and officials. Most of all the Dakar is brutal, and unsympathetic. The Dakar is freaking hard, but I still love it. I have been busy at work this past week  but once again my mind has been drawn back to it, like a moth into a flame. Something attracts me to it, its weird. It is challenging me. I need to think about the training. And the Bike. And the support. And the mental prep. And the paperwork.

Anything is possible right?

It seems like so many things are against me doing it: My job, my missus, my finances, but I am going to try and give this thing a bash. So this will be my blog on my dream to live and race in the Dakar 2013 as a privateer rookie, I hope you follow along on my dream. Right now that is all it is -A dream. I am not an expert rider by any means. I'm going to need all the help, support, sponsorship and advice I can get. I will be pushing for a finish, nothing more. That in itself is enough of a challenge.
 
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