We had one goal today and it was to win the Dakar Rally with Ricky.  We are so happy for him as he did an amazing job to take victory at this really tough Dakar.  Adrien pushed as hard as he could to get second as it was still possible for him to achieve at the start of today’s stage.  Although he missed out, we’re also pleased that he took that final step on the podium.

Fighting for the podium three days ago, the fuel line issue for Nacho sadly stopped him from joining in the fight with Ricky and Adrien.  He showed impressive speed and navigation skills which deserved a much better result than his sixth place.

After Pablo ran out of fuel during the 48 Hours Chrono this lost him a lot of time and ended his chance for the podium.  We’re happy that he made it to the finish and that it gave him the possibility to test the bike during this last week.

Our main goal at the start of this event was to win the Dakar, we started with six bikes and managed to get four to the final Parc Fermé at Yanbu.  The team did a great job and I’m so proud of them.  

Now we continue our work as we want to achieve the same result at the 2025 Dakar.  We also have the World Rally-Raid Championship to focus on this year with the next rally in Portugal and Spain in April.

I’m happy to finish the rally, it was super tough and long this year.  It wasn’t the result I was expecting, but I’m happy that I was able to manage all the issues I had during the rally and to finish my twelfth Dakar.  I go home with a good feeling that I got to the end.

It’s a nice way to start the year with a victory. It wasn’t easy as the course was really tough and so was the competition. Ross and my own team kept me on my toes, but not just me, I think we were keeping everyone on each other’s toes. It was definitely a fight to the end for everyone. I’m really happy we’re all here and all safe and we can go home. This time was a little bit different as I feel like this one was more earned as it was a lot tougher. In 2020, we had a big gap from the get-go. Here, I think me and Ross spent three days with a couple of seconds difference. I think between first and third there are eleven minutes or something, whatever Adrien got, but it’s been a tight race and ten minutes is not a big gap here on the rally. I had two good days, two opportunities to make a good push, but also stage 11 was a scare factor for me because I knew Ross was starting behind me, 18 minutes behind, and if he caught me it would be over. Stage 11 was hard but I stayed focused, got to the finishing line and didn’t lose too much time, so I’m really happy with this and I’m really happy for the team. I’m happy for all of us, we did an excellent job all of the two weeks. I think number 9 will be my lucky number from now on.

I’ve finished another Dakar Rally that’s been a rollercoaster of emotions, from the excitement of doing really well during the two weeks and then the issue yesterday.  But that’s racing and I’m happy for Ricky that he won and for Adrien that he got onto the podium too.  

I think we did really well as a team, we won a lot of the stages, we opened a lot of them and we showed that a lot of the hard work we’ve been doing paid off.

After the last years and the difficulties I had, the crashes, all of that, overall, to be on the podium, finally on the podium of the Dakar, it tastes really good. I’ve been fighting until the end. We’ve finished third, but we were in the fight for victory. We are closer than ever to the dream. To step onto the podium is a step towards my dream of victory.