Laia Sanz has achieved another of her great dreams:
to finish and win the Dakar in the women’s category
. As you have seen throughout this Dakar, The desire to excel and the desire to conquer new challenges is a quality that the pilot carries in her blood. The Ten times
Trial
World Champion, undisputed reference for all women who practice the sport of motorcycling, has embarked on the the toughest and most ambitious project of his short life: the Dakar. Under the umbrella of the Arcarons RST KH7 team squad and grandmaster Jordi Arcarons as squire, Laia is working hard to achieve the great dream of finishing as the women’s leader in her first edition of the Dakar, riding a Honda CRF 450 raid bike.
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Text: Trialworld Photos: Mediagé / Laia Sanz website Source: Dakar / Laia Sanz
Stage 13 (Saturday, January 15): Laia Sanz’s unbeatable debut in the Dakar, achieving absolute victory in the women’s category and occupying the 39th position in the overall calculation.
There were many of us who were confident that Laia could play a great role in the Dakar, despite her inexperience in these tasks and her recent shared dedication to Enduro. However, we do know the capacity for sacrifice, drive and perseverance that Laia imposes in all the challenges that have been presented to her throughout her sporting career.
She executed her first Dakar in an impeccable way
, not without crashes and setbacks, always well accompanied by her manager and squire, Jordi Arcarons, as well as her mechanic and masseur, who are also true heroes of this great feat.
Laia faced the last stage of the Dakar, bound for Buenos Aires, optimistic, but knowing that climbing those 190 km of special was a necessary and key procedure to successfully complete all her work. In the end everything went as we wanted and Laia managed, in addition to beating her great rival, the Swedish Annie Seel, to get into the “top 40” of the general classification. It couldn’t be better. Congratulations Laia!
Key moments from Laia Sanz’s Dakar:
Stage 3: Laia made a navigation error that made her lose more than half an hour to her main rival, entering the finish line in 77th position and forcing the Honda rider to start the next day far behind, fighting with riders slower than her and suffering a lot to be able to overtake them due to the great dust.
Stage 6: On a select route and after committing another navigation error that forces her to cover more kilometres than planned, Laia runs out of fuel 60km from the finish line, having to ask for help from the rest of the riders to barely complete the stage. Here he again conceded a few precious minutes to Seel.
Stage 10 and beyond: With the lead firmly established and in her hands, Laia faces the entry into Argentina with a different enthusiasm, which undoubtedly drove the Honda rider to overcome, not without suffering, the toughest part of the Dakar. Here she suffered a very hard fall that, fortunately, did not have serious physical consequences for Laia. From this point on, the suffering was increased by the great contrasts in altitude, which caused sudden changes in temperatures of up to 50 degrees at intervals of only half an hour. On other occasions she found liaison sections, which a priori are a good warm-up for the special, very complicated, arriving very tired at the key part of the route.
According to Laia: “It’s been incredible. I can’t quite believe it. For me it’s a dream come true, and even more so with the great team that has made all this possible: Jordi, Moi, Angels and Paco, who have worked very hard to make this day a reality. We’ve been through a lot of suffering, especially in the second week, but on the balance sheet there have been many more good moments than bad.”
According to Arcarons: “The most optimistic forecasts we could have imagined have come true, even improving. It’s a year-round work of perseverance, and here too for the whole team. Laia has been magnificent, I have thanked her for making me happy and I have given her my most sincere congratulations. He has innate riding skills. It was a very tough Dakar, perhaps the strongest that has been set in Argentina and Chile, but we set ourselves daily goals and everything has been easier. These results are a success for the whole team.”
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