"It always brings out the fire in me"

What a difference a year makes. In 2022, Sam Sunderland swept all before him, conquering a second Dakar crown and the inaugural World Rally-Raid Championship title. But in 2023, things started to go downhill 52 kilometres into Stage 1 of the Dakar, when the British star crashed out with a broken shoulder blade. It set the tone for a rough season. Sam was forced to miss the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge after breaking his right lower tibia in a final training ride, then crashed out again at the Sonora Rally, before pulling out of both Desafio Ruta 40 and the Rallye du Maroc with illness. Suffice it to say he'll be glad to see the back of 2023, although he isn't the first defending champion to have struggled with the number 1 plate, which he has previously described as a 'double-edged sword'. The last biker to go back-to-back at the Dakar remains Spanish great Marc Coma in 2014 and 2015. Hailing from a country with a very limited culture of rally-raid, Sam had a rather roundabout route into the sport. At age 19, he was working as a lift engineer in the UK and only racing for fun, having had a promising motocross career halted by a serious accident at 16. During a holiday to visit his aunt and uncle in Dubai, he tried desert riding for the first time and fell in love with it. He was spotted at the local motocross track by the manager of a KTM dealership, who invited him to come out and work in his shop and compete in the UAE Baja championship. Sam took the plunge and moved to Dubai in 2009, and by 2011 he was turning heads at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, claiming stage wins against some of the sport's best riders. A Dakar debut followed in 2012 and the factory teams soon came knocking at his door, with Sam joining Honda and then Red Bull KTM, where he learned a lot from his highly decorated teammate Coma. In 2017 he made history by becoming the first British winner of the Dakar, and after switching to GasGas for Dakar 2022, he joined the inner circle of riders to have won multiple Bedouin trophies by landing his second title. Even if the past year hasn't been kind to him, the 34-year-old is still a fierce competitor and remains as hungry as ever when it comes to the Dakar. When he gets things right, success is all but guaranteed; every time Sam has reached the finish line of the world's toughest rally, he's been on the overall podium.

"It would seem the number 1 on the bike doesn’t align with my plans! Other riders have had the same. Racing at the highest level is always a challenge, to have everything align and get the wins. If it was easy, it wouldn't be so respected or interesting. So as much as it's frustrating, it's also part of the process that makes the wins taste so good. I think the motivation to win is either there or it isn’t, from a young age. And when you've been doing it so long, it's hard to put a finger on exactly what it is that makes you hungry to win. But trust me, it's still there! Physically I'm good now and looking to keep building towards Dakar, where it’s obviously the time to be peaking. I'll prepare for Dakar 2024 the best way I can. Luckily, I have a great team around me at GasGas who help bring it all together -especially with the roadbook training, which as we've seen has been so important in recent editions. Given my record, I guess the goal should be to finish and we should be somewhere close, but I definitely want to get a third title in the bag. Honestly, the Dakar always stands out for me more than other races. I don’t know if it's because there’s much more glory on the line or what it is, but it certainly always brings out the fire in me."