Javi Vega “In other races, if you fall you get hurt. In the Dakar you can die”

2023-12-20 01:39:08

The Dakar 2024 starts on January 5 in Alula (Saudi Arabia) and ends on the 19th in Yanbu. Lorenzo Santolino (Guijuelo, Salamanca) and Javi Vega (Leganés, Madrid) hope to be both at the start and in the glory of the finish line. The Pont Grup pilots visited the headquarters of LA RAZÓN yesterday a few days before starting the adventure for which they work all year. “It’s a mix of emotions, we’re really looking forward to it, because what we like is to compete. These previous days are complicated in terms of training, because you want to have a good rhythm but with caution so as not to get injured,” says Santolino, who is going to Arabia in search of a “top 5”, which would mean surpassing its best classification, sixth place in 2021. “It is the event of the year, you work hard for it, not only physically, but also mentally, many meetings to get these budgets which are very high. There is a lot of desire to be there, and when you get on the bike you rest after everything you have fought”, adds Javi Vega, who faces the Dakar without assistance, although his good performance in 2023 will prevent him from being in the classifications of the Original category, which corresponds to competitors who do not have assistance.

Whether with the support of a team or alone, the Dakar is engaging, why? “It’s a special career, it’s the dream you’ve always had and that you watched as a child on TV. It’s true that it’s hard to get there, but year after year you come back because it’s engaging. There are some who are more professional, others who go on more adventures, It mixes everything and it’s very cool,” explains Vega, who faces his second Dakar without the company of his wife, with whom he did four editions as a backpacker. “Within a Dakar there are many dakars because the spirit and objective of the participants have nothing to do with it. In other sports, only the top are in the final. Here the best compete alongside those who are last, who live a pure adventure, suffering a lot of adversity. These differences in level make this race special,” completes Santolino.

The Dakar has passed through Africa, South America and Arabia, the speed has increased, but being fast is not enough to win it. “You have to be very good at everything: speed, navigation, and also know where the limit is. It is a discipline that you go a lot for confidence, because you go so fast that you have to trust what you are doing. There is a moment that you can have overconfidence and when you cross that limit it doesn’t warn you. In my first Dakar, everything was going well, faster and faster and I ended up in the helicopter (sixth stage). It’s about the experience, the information about the environment, the dangers, of trying to anticipate what is coming… Making that evaluation of everything and going to the limit without going over it is the key,” details Santolino, from Salamanca, who rides a Sherco prototype motorcycle. “There are very fast motocross riders who don’t last a short time in the Dakar and there is always a stone that has your name on it, so you have to be careful and be a little global. It’s seventy percent mental, having your head very settled, knowing how it works and have an eye. Because you are trusting: you pass one dune, two, three, four, all round, and it turns out that the fifth one is cut and you leave, and when you leave you get hurt. In trial or enduro you can break something, but in the Dakar you can die,” adds Javi Vega, who fell in love with the Dakar, never better said, when he went to Morocco. “In Europe everything was smaller, but suddenly you find yourself in the middle of the sea of ​​sand. I met my wife, she did sailing, she taught me everything and I suggested taking the step.” Santolino was dazzled by navigation: “Being lost in open areas and finding the good passage area is a very comforting feeling.”