“I want to be challenging the factory riders”

On the 2021 Dakar the ex-FIM Junior Cross-Country Rallies world champion Maciej Giemza was getting close to the top 10 and everything was going according to plan until a hidden rock on stage 9 put him out of the race with torn shoulder ligaments and a broken foot. Back in 2022 for his sixth year he was having an excellent first stage, running at the front with the factory riders. Unfortunately, that was the stage where many of them got lost and Maciej was no exception. Stage 4 didn’t go at all according to plan either, with the Orlen Team rider finishing in a lowly (for him) 39th place. After that things went much better, with a best stage result of 8th place on Day 10 to finish a highly respectable 18th overall. As for last year, in 2022 Maciej has confined his racing to domestic events before flying out for a month to Dubai to train and ride road books in preparation for next January.

“I was pretty happy with my 2022 Dakar – for a start I made it to the finish and that is always good! For sure the first week could have gone better but after that I was where I wanted to be, challenging the factory riders. As far as 2023 is concerned you always go into the race with high ambitions and then after a few days you see how your pace is compared to everybody else. I was happy last year when I was running in the top 10 at the end of the race and if I can do that again this year that would be great.”