• ENGINE Carlos Sainz: "The DNA of the Dakar is still intact"

"There, in the Dakar, you suffer. I say that I prefer to suffer here, that if I get tired, I'll get out of the sauna and go up to have breakfast or whatever. And there I won't be able to get out of the car" .

This is how Carlos Sainz Cenamor

(Madrid, 1962) summarizes

his physical set-up for the 2023 edition of the toughest race in the world.

On December 31, the Madrid rider will face his

sixteenth participation

, and a good part of his options,

waypoints

and

road books

apart, it will depend on the benefits of the Audi RS Q e-tron E2, a car "hybrid, high voltage, with four engines and countless sensors."

"It's like science fiction. It's a brutal technological challenge and that makes it special. Who was going to tell me 40 years ago that I was going to use this technology!", says Sainz in the presentation of his career project together his co-driver

Lucas Cruz

(Barcelona, ​​1974) in the karting that bears his name in Las Rozas (Madrid).

But it is not the only thing that would surprise him if he was told in the early 80s, when he began his career as a pilot.

So what he least imagined is that he was fitter now than in his late twenties.

Because his chances of victory are not only due to the performance of his vehicle, but also due to his physical condition.

For this reason, in December it has become a tradition to see Sainz sweating the fat drop on his social networks.

This year, 24,600 people "liked" a video of him exercising his neck on Instagram.

He was also very well received for pedaling an exercise bike inside a sauna while

Mötley Crüe's

Kickstar My Heart played.

"Getting ready for the extreme conditions of the Dakar. Training continues! Do you think it will be hot?" He ironized.

"

The physical issue is very simple

. The thing about the sauna and others has been through social networks. I have always done it, every year, what happens is that maybe before there were no social networks, or I did not upload it, or whatever", he clarifies before summarizing his athletic hyperactivity: "If you have the experience, you know what you are going to face. It is better to suffer Madrid, do your homework at home before going to Saudi Arabia".

Sainz ran his first Dakar in 2006, in the penultimate African edition, at the age of 43 and with

a herniated disc, the tendon in his left foot reconstructed and a chronic shoulder ailment

.

But nothing has prevented him from winning what is considered the demanding test three times: he did it in 2010 with Volkswagen, in 2018 with Peugeot and in 2020 with Mini.

He is now looking for his fourth Tuareg.

Work with weights focuses on obtaining resistance.JAIME DE DIEGO

With the motto "

no pain, no gain

" (without pain, there is no gain) the

two-time World Rally Champion

(in 1990 and 1992 with Toyota) begins to "tighten" in September, taking more care of his weight.

It is programmed according to the characteristics and duration of the Dakar.

When it was held in South America,

he held concentrations at altitude and hypoxia chambers

(like cyclists or athletes) to collect red blood cells as was necessary to travel the mountain stages.

Strength, abdominal work, lumbar, arms, shoulders concentrate their series

From him.

He does weights, but he's not looking for a lot of volume, he's looking for resistance.

The sauna is key to getting used to the heat

, a

handicap

in the long stages in which you have to maintain the pace for four or five hours.

The neck is also essential.

There is a lot of impact when jumping the dunes, he has already suffered minor injuries in the area and has to strengthen his cervical muscles to support the weight of the helmet.

In this 2023, the race begins on December 31 with a brief prologue that will give way to 14 stages until Sunday, January 15, with a rest day on the 9th. In the words of Lucas Cruz, it will be "different from what they are accustomed", since "there is a first week in which the specials will be long, with up to 460 kilometres, with no rest in the middle of the stage and where

we will not know if the rhythm is good until the end

".

In the second week, there will be the marathon stage and the specials, which "

will be long but slow

, so we will have to be stable and approach them in a different way. The three or four days of sand will be key", specified the Catalan co-driver.

Sainz and his co-driver Lucas Cruz, at the Carlos Sainz Karting in Las Rozas.EFE

"

You have to fight with younger people

, if you want to play in the first division with a brand like Audi... It is clear that if they trust us we have to do things well. And that implies preparation," he clarifies.

"In addition, that today everything can be measured. For that

you have stress tests and you can compare data with last year

: the VO2 Max (cardiorespiratory test that evaluates a person's ability to exercise), where I have the threshold aerobic, where do I start the anaerobic, the lactate test, etc.

Over the years, the man who was Real Madrid's vice-presidential candidate in 2006 and national squash champion, acknowledges that "

preparation and motivation costs more

" and it is necessary "to have more discipline, because if not, it is better not to play this game and stay at home quietly".

For this reason, he does not consider what he does a merit.

"It is my obligation if I want to take on this challenge to do it. Well, maybe it has more merit at a certain age, but it is what you have to do."

Sainz, in the Dakar 2022.AUDI SPORT

And this dedication succeeds.

Despite the arrival of drivers like

Sébastien Loeb

, 48 years old and with nine world championships, the veterans continue to command the Dakar.

"It's a matter of time before Loeb wins the Dakar. It's a great ride like the top of a pine tree. What happens is that winning the Dakar is not easy. Otherwise, there would be many people who would have done it. It's not for nothing, but it's that we have been fighting to win for several years. And many new ones have arrived", he declares. "When I arrived at the World Rally Championship, well there were a number of drivers. When you are new and you arrive what you are dealing with, if you have the same car , to be there, to beat them and to show that there is a new generation. That is going to happen in the Dakar, but it seems that it is costing.

Because it is the law of life and of sport: young people have to come and take away those who were winning

.

That has always happened in the history of all sports.

And that has to happen in the Dakar", she assures.

But when that happens, it won't be because Sainz has given up trying to blow out one more candle on his birthday cake.

"I have earned the right to be here and enjoy myself until I say enough is enough", the considered best Spanish driver in history often repeats.

He acknowledges that "there is not much left" for him to retire, but that he does not know "when it will be."

But his co-driver has already given some clue: "

Carlos will be retired by the stopwatch, not the calendar

."

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