Number 160: Ruben Faria

On his own patch, the Portuguese Ruben Faria produced the first nice surprise of this Dakar 2006. For his big debut in the event, this native of Olhao – a small fishing port in the Algarve- finished just 4’’ behind title-holder Cyril Despres. He may have come second, but he is clearly a winner in all Lusitanian hearts, not least that of the President of the Republic, Jorge Sampaio, who was present at the early morning start in Lisbon. “I was happy to see all these people alongside a track I know well, as I live thirty kilometers from Faro,” revealed Faria on the finish podium in Portimao. I couldn’t have hoped for better in my first-ever Dakar (…) I’ve competed against Cyril Despres before in Portugal. He is very strong and I know already that once we’re in Morocco, I won’t see him again in the race, so I’m really pleased. I went fast but I never threw caution to the wind.”

Ruben Faria’s happiness should be completed today since he will be the “stage regional winner” a few hundred yards away from Portimao. It amounts to a fine reward for this 31-year-old biker who collected a host of national titles (supercross, endurance and all-terrain) during the 90s, before undergoing a string of injuries and operations until 2004. Spurred on by two pals with whom he eventually formed the SPEDakar (“So Paramos Em Dakar”, or “We won’t stop till Dakar”) team, Faria has borrowed 60,000 euros from the bank in order to realize his dream: to follow in the footsteps of his idol Stéphane Peterhansel. “Yesterday, I almost cried when I bumped into “Peter” at the competitors’ briefing in Lisbon. For me, he’s represents the benchmark I need to reach,” he admits with emotion.

But where his objective is concerned, the Portugal 2005 all-terrain runner-up is as level-headed as ever: he aims to take his KTM all the way to Lake Rose. While he knows next to nothing about Africa, the subtleties of a road-book or the traps that await him in the Mauritanian desert, he would be “just happy to finish in the first fifty overall.” Then, his dream of completing “the toughest” raid rally first time around will have become a reality.

He has already taken part in nine Dakars, but every time, it is as if he is starting from scratch. José Luis Alvarez has been consistent in his pursuit of “the Adventure” and has got a great deal out of the event. After all, if you had been born in Ceuta and spent your youth at Laayoun in the Western Sahara, you would scarcely be indifferent to the charms of Africa either.

When he talks of his childhood, his discovery of the Atlantic Ocean is always prominent in his memory. With his brothers and sisters, he would go to the beach on foot under the supervision of his soldier father. After negotiating the succession of dunes, suddenly there it was, the big blue stretching out as far as the eye could see. It made a massive impression upon the young José Luis. It was also around this time that the world of mechanics opened up to him. Learning to weld from the age of 10 at the barracks’ workshops, the young adventurer began to take shape and José Luis began to dream of Dakar glory. During the 1980s, he got a taste of his great passion as a frustrated spectator, heading for Paris whenever possible to camp close to the Concorde or the Champ de Mars to watch the big event get underway. What followed was a natural sequence of steps, José Luis-style.

First, he purchased a Honda 600, which he did up and rode in his first rally. Always on the lookout for funding, it was as a journalist for the Spanish exposé magazine New Look that he embarked on his second Dakar. However, it wasn’t until his eighth attempt in 2003 that he finally managed to reach the finish line, with a unique distinction that typifies the man: he was the first Spaniard to complete the even on a quad bike. Over the years, he has lived a thousand and one adventures on the Dakar, selling his bike in Mauritania for 80,000 ouguiyas or entering with a budget of zero. He has always ridden his luck, and once even underwent a brief transformation into one of the three wise men: “Near Tan-Tan, my quad had broken down and the village kids were all swarming around me. I realized it was the day of the Kings and that they would have no gifts, so I made them paper planes and boats with pages from my notebook.” That’s José Luis all over: neither the vastness of the desert nor the scale of problems fazes him. He lives and breathes adventure, alone on a quad bike and without assistance.