Aussie Dakar Rally champion Daniel Sanders set for 'month straight of partying' after 'wild ride'
Updated . First published
Newly crowned Australian Dakar Rally champion Daniel Sanders has given an eye-popping insight into what he described as a "wild ride", revealing his heart rate was hovering around 160 beats per minute for eight hours on some days across the 14-day event.
But now that the 30-year-old has reached the end of the merciless Saudi Arabia event, in which he became just the second Australian to win the Dakar Rally at the weekend, he is awaiting eagerly a month straight of partying.
Sanders and Toby Price (2016, 2019) are the only Australians who've won the Dakar Rally, which is carried out on some of the most inhospitable terrain on the planet.
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In the bike division, Sanders won the first three stages and was never caught. He became the first rider to lead from start to finish since Spain's Marc Coma in 2009, when the rally was held in Argentina and Chile.
Sanders won the race on his fifth attempt. He was fourth and the best rookie on debut in 2021.
"It's really long mornings and days on the bike. We're sitting on the bike for at least 8-10 hours a day. [We have] 3am wake-ups and we're getting back to the camp where the team is at around three, four, five o'clock. It's just hard and demanding," Sanders said on Nine's Today.
Daniel Sanders is the second Australian to win the prestigious Dakar Rally. AP
"Some of the days your average heart rate is 160 for eight hours ... so it was a pretty hard ride.
"The organisers always test our bodies each year, so they make it harder and harder to navigate through the desert with a roadbook, like a map; there's a tablet on the front of our bike and we've got to find our way to the finish line every day without getting any speed penalties in little towns, and we've got to validate way points as we go through. So it's a wild ride and it's crazy to get to the finish."
Sanders crossed live to the Today show with the Dakar Rally silverware in his mitts.
"I reckon I've got about a month straight of carrying around this trophy and partying around with it back home in Australia," he said with a laugh.
Sanders was also the first winner to have led the race from start to finish in well over a decade. AP
Sanders had said immediately after his win that he got "instant chills" through his entire body as he stormed toward the finish line.
"I was super nervous. I couldn’t believe it. All the emotions started coming through and I could see the finishing line,” he said.
“To win the six-day international enduro and now the Dakar, it’s just ticked off all the goals for my career.
"After the last three years of a lot of lows, now we've got the up, so all the hard work has paid off.”
Spain's Tosha Schareina, second to Sanders since stage four, completed his best finish, nearly nine minutes back.
Sanders during the 10th stage of the rally, between Haradh and Shubaytah. AP
