“A special kind of freedom”
RIDER FACTS
- The classic route in off-road competition is to start on bikes and then move to cars: ‘with age comes a cage’ as they say in the bivouac. But Modestas Siliunas is coming at it from the other direction, moving from four wheels, especially track racing, to racing bikes.
- What’s truly impressive is how swiftly he’s mastered this switch. Normally motorcycle competitors start riding very young whereas Modestas only began off-road riding three and a half years ago and has been competing for just three years, mainly in Poland, Lithuania and UAE.
- Fortunately, he has a very experienced coach behind him - none other than Original by Motul class winner Arunas Gelazninkas. He’s a man who knows a thing about getting to the finish line.
- But there’s always an element of luck racing motorcycles, a stone hidden in the sand, a wash out you didn’t see… And for his first Dakar participation Modestas’ luck run out on the first day of the infamous 2024 48h Chrono.
- The injuries he sustain meant he was unable to ride for 7 months but he was back for the Rallye du Maroc in October and will have final shake down on the upcoming Dubai Baja before having a second go at achieving that much dreamed of Dakar finish.
2025 AMBITIONS
“Already I’m very busy with my work. We supply scaffolding to energy companies throughout Europe and the business doesn’t give me a lot of time to train. When you add an injury that takes a while to recover from and life gets complicated. I was able to enter the Rallye du Maroc in October but as it turned out I wasn’t full fit. On the second to last day I was getting tired and so decided to cut out by road and go directly to the bivouac. It wasn’t very good for my overall result but up until then I’d gone well and was so happy to be back on the bike. What I love about rally raid is that when you’re racing you can’t think about anything else. All your worries disappear – it’s a special kind of freedom and that is why I am so looking forward to going back to the Dakar.”
