David Frétigné: « Manage a smart race »
Naïm Suleymanoglu, 1,47m, 50 world records and triple Olympic champion in weightlifting. Kajsa Bergqvist, 1,75m, world indoor record holder in high jump (2,08m) and World champion of the discipline. David Frétigné’s battle is quite similar. In a discipline where mechanical factors are decisive, he chose difficulty: to go faster than the others with a less powerful bike. While the KTM bikes of Coma, Despres and the others are equipped with 660cc engines, it is with a 450cc Yamaha that the native from the Aveyron area of France battles it out in the Dakar with quite some success in the last three years. 5th of the final overall standing in 2005, Frétigné lived a more difficult and eventful race in 2006. Enough to boost this born competitor who had established a coherent program for the 2007 Dakar: “I had signed a contract with a Spanish sponsor but I received an e-mail in October telling me that I couldn’t count on them any more. I was devastated but it was out of the question to remain at home in January. In three weeks, I managed to set up a solid project and I am now reassured to be able to leave in good conditions’’. Good conditions mean a solid assistance structure, reliable sponsors and still a 450cc Yamaha on which he can found a lot of hope despite the difference of calibre: “On paper, one can’t win with a 450cc. But I still hope to aim for the podium. There is still a way of managing a smart race. I think that the stages with no assistance for example, will require a lot of efforts in terms of management and strategy. It is in these domains that one can make a difference”. A philosophy that Naïm, the pocket Herculis or flying Kajsa would certainly have applied at the best moment of their careers.