“Original by Motul is the ultimate challenge”

Having worked for years to take part in “the mother of all desert rallies”, Mike Wiedemann was delighted to finish his maiden Dakar last year inside the top 50. The 24-year-old thus became the youngest German to finish the rally on a bike, which only seems to have fuelled his passion for speeding through the Saudi wilderness: in 2023, he'll be participating in the gruelling Original by Motul class and attempting to complete the rally without assistance. Mike got his first bike (a Yamaha PW50) on his fourth birthday, although a fractured femur just a few weeks later showed him that motorsport isn’t for the faint of heart! He nevertheless continued to ride and began competing in enduro as a teenager, eventually claiming his first national title at the age of 19. Having picked up experience at offroad events like the ISDE and the Enduropale du Touquet, he gradually developed his rally-raid skills at the Panafrica Rally, Hispania Rally and Rallye du Maroc, also travelling to Spain for training with KTM manager Jordi Viladoms. At Dakar 2022 he shared a stand with the BAS Dakar team, which meant he was able to pick up tips from team boss Bart van der Velden and top riders like Mason Klein, with whom he has also spent time training in 2022. Talented and ambitious, Mike is proud to be flying the flag for Germany -where there isn't much of a rally-raid culture- and now hopes to make it two finishes from two at Dakar 2023.

“I spent many years preparing for Dakar 2022. Sometimes it was really hard, with lots of injuries and problems finding sponsors, but in the end it was the best decision of my life. The different countries, landscapes and people in rally-raid are amazing. I learned a lot riding with BAS Dakar, for sure. Bart van der Velden is a really nice guy with a lot of experience. I also had really good teammates in Mason Klein and Bradley Cox, they helped me a lot. I'm really proud of my success. In Germany it's very difficult to do rallies because we don't have the terrain for it, and there's not much opportunity to spend a lot of time on the bike. Because of this I spent more time in the gym and on a bicycle instead of riding a motorbike. But it was still enough for a top-50 finish, so I'm really happy with my result. I didn't do too much racing in 2022 because I was really busy with work and had some injuries. I did two rallies in the car as co-driver, which I think is better than nothing. And I spent three months with Mason Klein and Harith Noah in the US, doing some roadbooks and rally training, which helped me a lot. This year I'm competing in Original by Motul because it's the ultimate challenge, and in my opinion it's also the spirit of Dakar."