“Challenging myself in the beauty of the desert”

The first memory of the Dakar Elio Aglioni has is an endless desert when the competition was still in Africa. His passion for rally raid is deeply connected to his love for the desert and as many riders he discovered the discipline riding in some tours in the Maghreb desert. Merzouga Rally 2012 marked his debut in a competition at an international level and since then he has cultivated his passion with some milestones as his participation to the Pharaons Rally in 2014 with a superb 5th overall finish. After finishing 19th at the 2017 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, Elio Aglioni will be at the start of the 2019 Dakar.

“Rally Raid is a personal challenge : I see myself riding alone in the desert. It’s the ultimate adventure but with safety. We know that we are tracked and monitored and this makes the difference because in case of any difficulties you know that you can count on the medical support of the organization. I’m fascinated by the challenge of riding in the sand and the long stages and I’m scared of running out of fuel while I’m still looking for the right direction !!! as it’s my debut, I trained a lot with the enduro bike, I did a specific work out in the gym and covered many kilometres with my bicycle. My target is to do the best that I can and finish the rally.”