Laia Sanz
(Corbera de Llobregat, Barcelona, 1985) faces her eleventh Dakar with her strength reduced by a tick: her bite transmitted Lyme disease. He has not been able to work as much as he would have wanted, but he hopes to play a great role again and compete to be among the top 15. His results are what has earned him the respect of everyone in a world as tough as motorcycles, although he assumes that the step towards cars is getting closer and closer. Next year, for now, he will compete with
Carlos Sainz
in a championship designed precisely for electric cars.
What has Lyme disease meant to prepare for the Dakar? It has been a tough year.
At this point, I am not as I would like to go to face a Dakar, but they are things that cannot be chosen and, within what has happened, we must try to take it in the best possible way.
This December I was able to do a bit of motorcycle riding, start training, and we'll see how my body will tolerate the effort. Were you very surprised to find out what I was suffering from? The truth is that it was hard, because it cost a lot of diagnose, very strange things happened to me and, in the end, you get scared.
Also, going from doctor to doctor, to do tests.
It took three or four months to find out what was wrong with me and it was difficult Perhaps it had a lot to do with the fact that here it is not a very widespread disease ... There are not many cases.
Perhaps it was for this reason that it cost so much, in other places it is diagnosed faster, here it is rarer, but I live in a mountain place, where there are sheep, ticks, and it is easier to get it than in a city Like Barcelona, the pandemic also complicated everything and is still complicating it.
How did you manage to train in lockdown? Lockdown was a very difficult situation, but within that, I really can't complain.
We were able to do the Dakar, which was like our race of the year, with which the season was saved, so to speak, in other sports everything had to be canceled.
While it lasted, I was able to train well.
Nowadays, with Facetime I could do a couple of hours a day with the coach, so the physical part was able to work a lot.
I am lucky to live in a place where I have a garage, a garden, four machines to work with, a roller, and with that we were able to do good training sessions.
Later, when we started dating, it was when I contracted that disease. How did you experience the gradual return to competition? I missed it a lot, but above all more because of the disease than because of the confinement, because with the confinement everyone was in House.
What I had, more than the desire to compete, was the desire to feel well to be able to compete, because I could not do it.With everything that has happened in recent weeks, the new strains of the coronavirus and other complications, have you ever considered the possibility that the race will have to be suspended? No, I think we have to be positive.
The ASO has a lot of organizational experience, it is very powerful, and I am sure that when organizing the race they contemplated all possible scenarios.
It may be a bit more stressful, especially for some countries, but it will all work out in the end.
Let's hope that we can all arrive when it comes time, and from all countries, because, if not, it would not be too fair. The 2019 edition also came after a complicated year in terms of health and, even so, it managed to finish in twelfth position .
Would you say that you are used to overcoming challenges? Any athlete, because we all have our things, our wars, who has not had a serious injury has gone through something similar to what has happened to me, is used to overcoming things.
In this sense, I have been quite negative for two years, with a bit of bad luck, infections, some injuries ... They have been complicated because I have not had the opportunity to train more frequently and do long periods of motorcycle and physical activity. The last edition was the first in Saudi Arabia and he did not like their approach very much.
He went on to point out that it was almost like playing Russian roulette.
Do you think things will be different this year? Yes, I think they will.
I think that David Castera, who is the one who designs the route a bit, has the advantage that he has ridden on a motorcycle, he listens to us a lot and has a lot of experience.
I'm sure you did a good job.
Nobody is interested in a Dakar as fast as last year, this year we will have more navigation, it will be a little slower, also due to the changes in the regulations, with the issue of limiting the tires and piston changes.
All of this will help make a Dakar a little different. Last year, after several editions without victims, saw the death of two competitors, Paulo Gonçalves and Edwin Straver.
What does an event like that mean on a psychological level for those of you who compete or are about to do it? The truth is that Paulo's subject was complicated, because we all knew him very well, we went through the accident site and I think we were all very aware of what was happening.
Something like that, I have shared a team with him, it became very hard.
You have little desire to continue, seeing all that, and it was difficult to manage.
Later, in the last days, there was also the accident of the Dutch pilot.
In the end, all lives have the same value, but it did not touch us as closely as what happened with Paulo, one of the most experienced pilot, loved by everyone.
It was a very hard blow, most of the fatalities among the participants, 22 out of 31, were motorcyclists.
What do you think could be done to break this statistic once and for all? Risk exists in the Dakar, we all know it, it has always been there.
Above all, on a motorcycle.
But I think that work is being done to try to reduce it.
This year, for example, we are all required to carry an airbag and other things have also been done.
Now, we will be warned of the dangers by means of an alarm, before they were only marked on the
roadbook
.
It's about helping to avoid them, about trying not to hurt yourself too much if you fall, although sometimes it is complicated.
Even with an airbag, if you fall at 100 miles per hour it's hard not to hurt yourself.
We know we run this risk and any changes made to the regulations to reduce it are welcome. If the bike carries a higher risk, what is it that pushes so many people to get on it to compete? All of that is part of the Dakar magic.
All these sports that have this risk point have something that attracts and that makes us all go there, despite how dangerous it is.
That it is so dangerous, so harsh, is also what makes it magical.
Sometimes you are there and you think what am I doing here, getting up so early, going cold and hot, but we all come back.
There is something magical about it that attracts us and we all come back. Does being the highest ranked woman in the Dakar year after year put added pressure on her? No.
My goal, above all, is to finish, and fight in the general classification.
I do not look at that classification much, but rather do my best in the motorcycle general classification. Last year 12 women competed and this year 16 will compete. The key to obtaining the respect of all in a world as traditionally chauvinist as motor racing is perseverance? The secret to being respected is to achieve good results.
I, at least, I think I have earned the respect of the other riders, the adversaries, the bivouac in general, because I have achieved good results and I am not there for the simple fact of being a woman, but I fight with those who are He has already completed ten consecutive Dakars on motorcycles, a record, and faces number 11, but there is more and more talk about a possible change to cars.
Can you see yourself taking this step soon?
It depends on whether there is an early option to do things or not.
Now, I think about this Dakar, which is what he plays right now.
I have always tried to set short-term goals.
It is true that I am no longer 20 years old, that it will be my eleventh Dakar on motorcycles and that all that weighs.
I do not know if it is because of the illness that I have experienced, if I would not find myself with more desire and strength to continue, but the car is a very good way to extend the race and I see myself closer to them every time, if the opportunity arises For now, it has already been announced that he will share a team in electric car competitions with Carlos Sainz next year.
Do you think that an electric car could be really competitive in the Dakar? Yes, I think that in a few years is the idea of the organization.
Maybe not that they are completely electric, because it is complicated, because of the battery life, but perhaps hybrid models or with other energy sources.
The whole motor world is pulling over there.
Surely, in two or three years we will see an important change in this regard. What does it mean to share a team with Carlos Sainz? This year we have only trained, next year, we will compete together.
For me, it is an honor.
That Carlos Sainz calls you to be in a project like this makes me very excited.
It is clear that there will also be a lot of pressure, because he is super competitive and always wants to be in front and I am new in this world.
I hope to learn a lot from him, I think it is something that can help me get into the four wheels, and I hope I can do it quickly so I can measure up to someone like him.
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