Laia Sanz arrives at the halfway point of the 2013 Dakar with truly surprising expectations and performance. The multiple Trial champion is improving stage by stage and, in addition to being a solid leader in the women’s category, she is working hard to get into the top 30 at the end of the tough competition.
In this interview, he tells us about his impressions on the day off.
Question: After passing the halfway point of the race, what is your assessment of this edition of the Dakar?
Laia Sanz: Unlike other years, the race started out very hard from the beginning, in Peru. In addition, this year there is a higher level and it is seen in the pace that most of the riders have. I’m surprised with how the new bike is behaving and my form, considering we weren’t able to train as much as we would have liked before the start of the Dakar. At the moment everything is working perfectly in the team, but there is still a long way to go.
Q: How do you get to the rest day after eight stages at this level?
L.S: The truth is that I’m very happy with how things are going so far. Today, when there is no competition, I noticed the ‘slump’ and the accumulated tiredness. It will be good for us to regain our strength to face the rest of Dakar. What I deal with the worst are the changes in altitude, they are affecting me a lot, especially in the links that you don’t go with so much tension.
P. It doesn’t look like it. Yesterday you got your personal and team best result (13th) in a stage.
L.S: No! I was lucky because a lot of drivers got lost at an intersection that was very hidden. This allowed me to climb positions and finish in the top 15. At the end of the day, these cases show you that in this race sailing well also counts.
Q. You’ve had a couple of crashes in the last few days. Are you fully recovered from your right hand and the little finger of your left hand?
L.S: Yes, it was precisely on the liaisons but I’m now perfectly ready to face the rest of the race without problems.
Q. What do you think will be the main difficulties in the next stages?
L.S: Without a doubt, we will see how the heat will takeits toll and it will be one of the elements to take into account.Maybe there won’t be as much navigation because there’s a lot of track, but we mustn’t forget that we still have to do the hardest stage of the entire Dakar: Fiambalá.
P. You are already in 30th position in the general classification, what is the strategy to follow for the rest of the race?
L.S: We must follow the same path. If we don’t risk too much and do the same as I have done so far, without making mistakes or wasting time, I know that we will improve on the result of previous years.
Interview: Gas Gas
