One-man show thrills daredevils
UYUNI,BOLIVIA: “You don’t have to be mad to work here, but it helps,” read a poster outside the office of Russi Karanjia, editor of Blitz, the now-defunct iconic tabloid from Bombay that introduced investigative journalism to Indians in the 1960-70s.
Amauri Sports Organisation (ASO), which organises the Dakar Rally, too can have such a requirement for the riders who participate in the Malles Moto section. One needs a streak of madness to hurtle across 9000km alone, without sponsors and support staff.
Every year a bunch of daredevils take part in this solo run in the bike and quad sections called Malles Moto, in which they to do everything on their own --- from repairing the bikes to arranging for their stay at various bivouacs.
The ticket to participate in the Dakar does not come cheap and the big teams like KTM, Yamaha and Honda spend huge amounts to participate. The teams having dozens of people to take care of their pilots, moving from bivouac to bivouac in a cavalcade of buses and caravans.
The participants in Malles Motos are at the opposite end of the spectrum. “They are the craziest people I have known during my association with the Dakar,” saidanofficial.
So while after a hard day’s racing, which may involve driving for 400-500 km, riders of top teams have a hot shower and leave it to their mechanics to tune the bike and team officials to collect information like the road book, Malles Moto participants take out their tool kit and spare parts and get the bike ready for the next stage.
At times, riders are provided space for a couple of trunks for a fee and everything a rider wants is packed. The organisers haul these trucks to the bivouacs and lay them out at the end of the day for the riders to tend to their bikes.
There are two reasons why riders go Malles Moto. One group does it to save the cost of having a team and backup crew while the others go into it for the challenge. Toomas Trusa is one. “It’s a challenge as you are doing everything on your own, have no help or backup. I raced in Dakar for a team a few years back, so thought of doing it on my own this year,” Trusa told HT.