Mason Klein: "This is my third time on the bike"

Dakar 2024 | Stage 1 | YANBU > YANBU
January 6 ^th 2024 - 15:15 [GMT + 3]

Yesterday Mason Klein took the gamble of opening the special for reasons no-one else understood. It clearly paid off, as he stayed in the lead from start to finish and picked up bonuses for over 400 kilometers. He was third in the stage and, therefore, the overall, a feat accomplished on a brand-new Kove fresh out of the factory. It was a rock-solid performance.

"I chose to start first and then I thought about what I did after like, as I was laying in bed, I was kind of realising what I did and I was thinking, oh, maybe I should have at least gone behind Skyler. But anyways, like I said before, the idea of opening the first stage at the Dakar is really cool. So, in the end, no regrets because now I can say I've done it. As expected, it was a very difficult one with a lot of stones. It was pretty rocky. If you look at my tires, they're pretty much fully gone. It was a lot of really fast track too though. And with the headwind, I never really knew if I was underpowered or I was just like being stopped. Maybe that's why my rear tire is so bald, just spinning. This is my third time on the bike now and I couldn't be happier. I know I could only make it better from here. The idea of doing the rest of the Dakar is really exciting because I'm sure the bike will just keep getting better and better. I started thinking about like strategy and the thought of strategy is kind of like stressful. This morning, I kind of just told myself I'll try to ride this whole race without paying attention to the results, so much just riding because in the end, I feel like a lot of it comes down to luck anyways. Just to stay on the bike and finish every day is probably the most important part. And, if a good result comes, then I'd be really happy because that's obviously what I want. So, yeah, trying to keep the stress out of my life."