From the sand of the Dakar Rally, to the dirt of ProMX to the burning rubber of the Australian Superbikes, there’s a host of .
Seven months ago, differences between life and death for Daniel ‘Chucky’ Sanders were measured in millimetres, but over the sands of the Dakar Rally in 2024, kilometres will separate competitors.
Riding well outside Alice Springs, in preparation for the Finke desert race in May, Sanders crashed hard, breaking his femur in two places.
“I broke it out near Alice Springs on the Finke track and I was about 100km out of town,” said Sanders. “I was doing a training run, crashed and woke up on my side, I didn’t even realised that I’d crashed. It wasn’t a high-speed crash, only 50km/hr.
“I woke up, figured out I broke my leg and passed out again, next time I woke up there were three guys who got me into a follow vehicle and off to the hospital, there’s no ambos (ambulances) that come out that far.”
Being that far from medical attention with a serious injury was trouble enough, but it could have been so much worse for the decorated star of the bike off-road.
“I was super lucky to have the support of those guys that I met just that day and fellas that I knew to drive me into town,” said Sanders. “Once I saw the x-rays, I knew it was very serious, it had been very close to the artery. I pinch myself a bit to this day, it could have been a lot worse, but I live to fight another day.”
Fast-forward to the end of 2023 and Sanders is preparing for an assault on the upcoming Dakar Rally 2024, the colossal challenges of the Saudi Arabian desert and competition with the top riders in the world added to the near-death experience and comeback from his broken leg. Not that any of that will stop Sanders.
“I just never give up, that’s one thing I’ve carried throughout my life in every sport that I’ve every played,” said Sanders. “I’m still hungry to win the Dakar, it’s definitely one thing I want to get under my belt.
“We’re a little bit under-prepared this year, but it’s the same as last year, and I went out and was one of the favourites for most of the race before having a bit of bad luck. Each day is a long race and a lot of things can happen.”
The 2023 race saw Sanders enter the race with a recently fractured elbow, coming into the event with little preparation. The Victorian surprised many to win stage 3 and hold the overall lead for two days before food poisoning struck.
“I had a five or six minute lead going into day 6 (Ed: 3:33 over Skyler Howes), then I woke up the next morning feeling super crook with some diarrhoea, couldn’t eat and I was super weak,” said Sanders. “I lost 28 minutes that day, and ended up losing the race by 22 minutes overall (Ed: 25:57 behind winner Kevin Benavdies in seventh overall).
“That’s just how the Dakar runs, some days you can be on it and as happy as Larry, and others you can be crook or break your arm. That’s why it’s so tough, it’s not always like the fastest guy always wins, you have to be the tortoise sometimes and that’s what we’re going to try this year.”
The Dakar Rally is one of the pinnacles of motorsport, and in off-road rally riding, it doesn’t get any bigger. All eyes are on the race, and as the bikes are the premier category, Sanders is again going in as a big name to watch, but again it is off limited preparation after his injuries.
“Coming off the injury in May, the broken femur, it was a good six and half months off,” said Sanders. “So, I’ve gone almost straight over there and trained in California in the high desert and down near the Mexico border.
“We did two weeks of pretty intense training. The first few days there was a lot for me to test with the new bike and some updates to hardware that the team has made throughout the year where I’ve missed out on the testing.
“Then, it was into roadbook training and the navigation stuff. Long days on the bike training and doing a race-sim, the sort of stuff we can expect in Dakar. Trying to keep it as tense and as race simulated as possible.”
In 2024, again that pre-race preparation will be Sanders’ main point of reference for his shape and condition. The upside is the Australian has come into the event in a similar place before and pulled off top results.
“I had that edge over everyone and felt really comfortable in the desert, hopefully I can be at the same level of skill and speed and I can come in a jump onto that,” said Sanders. “We definitely want to save a bit going into the last stages, going full gas through the desert for that long, we have to look after the body early.
“Everyone puts in 120% at Dakar, everyone trains for it all year. I hope everyone enjoys it, that we’ve got some good stories to tell every day, that we can keep everyone updated each day on SBS to how we’re going, get some funny stories in there.”
