Dakar, Enduro and TET.

Its early on a Saturday morning, ive had a restless night and im feeling some nervous excitement, but ill get to that later.

The Dakar Rally is running at the moment and ive been following the daily updates and watching the history of Rally (in general) on YouTube.  It really appeals as it has all the adventure of long distance travel, coupled with speed and off-road challenge.

An interview with the one of the drivers of the cars suggested the bikers have it the hardest.  In particular the 'Malle Moto' class in which the rider has to perform all his own maintenance as well as ride, navigate, eat, sleep.   One of my biking hero's, lyndon poskitt, entered in 2017 and came second.  Here's a guy that knows his stuff, but it pushed him to the absolute limit!   If you havent watched his 'Races to Places' series on youtube, then you should, it has an episode covering the Dakar.  On a side note, i saw Lydon being interviewed on a Dakar TV program and it cited his profession as 'Adventurer' .  Imagine stating 'I'm an Adventurer' when asked 'what do you do?'  HA! love it!

Anyway, back to earth with a more achievable personal goals.  In the spirit of Dakar i'm going to enter some enduro races this year, fit in more adventure travel over the TET and possibly some off-road riding in southern Spain.

As to the source of my restlessness; Ive signed up for a 2019 IOPD race license and entered my first Enduro Race! It's at Tong in Yorkshire with Edge Off Road Events on the 10th Feb, here.  Having never done this before i'm more than a little nervous and almost certainly lacking in skill.  I have two practice days in the near future, the first is tomorrow at Ashby Moto Park, here.

Tony 'likes to Enduro' and Chris 'likes to wheelie' are doing the practice day tomorrow as well as the actual event, they'll be good for some moral support.

I've got a day of bike preparation ahead of me and i'm excited to start, never worked on a KTM before.