“It is never easy to come back from an injury”

In 2022 an on-form Joaquim Rodrigues started his Dakar extremely badly when, along with a number of other front runners, he lost almost an hour looking for a waypoint on the first stage. It meant that he couldn’t do better than 14th overall on arriving in Jeddah, but -and it is a big but- he nevertheless stayed sufficiently focused to win his first ever Dakar special. A pleasure doubled by the fact that in doing so, the ex-Supercross rider also offered Hero their first ever stage victory on the race. That obviously increased J-Rod’s confidence going into the 2023 edition and he was where he wanted to be, finishing the third stage in the top 10. Then on stage 4 disaster stuck when he crashed out with a broken leg. Back in action in October 2023, after seven months off the bike, for the Rallye du Maroc, he tragically broke his scapula on the shake down test before the race had even begun. Once again fighting to get back to fitness, he hopes to be able to train with the rest of the Hero MotoSports team at the end of December before lining up again for the 2024 Dakar.

“There’s no denying that 2023 has been a pretty tough year for me. Let’s hope 2024 is better. It is never easy to come back from an injury and to suffer two in a row like this is more than twice as hard. You have to dig deep to find the motivation -physical re-education is never much fun! What pushes me is the fact that I still enjoy riding the bike and that I know I have the speed. Also, the Hero team have been amazing, as always. They never let you down, they stand by you -it really is like a small family. Obviously the 2024 Dakar is going to be difficult in terms of results. If you don’t race you lose your pace and I haven’t ridden competitively for a whole year. Inevitably that is going to have an impact, but I will do my best for myself and my team.”