One step at a time…
Dakar 2026 |
Stage 12 |
AL HENAKIYAH
> YANBU
January 16
th
2026
- 20:16
[GMT + 3]
Konrad Dabrowski finished in 28th position on his first Dakar in 2021 and is continuing to discretely make progress which could eventually see him join the elite. On the eve of the end of the rally in Yanbu, he occupies 13th position in the overall rankings and 4th in the Rally 2 class.
The Dakar is a race that often involves a lot of perseverance. Konrad Dabrowski's career has taught him this virtue, which has been essential to his progress since his Dakar debut in 2021, the year when he became, at the age of 19 years old, the youngest rider to finish the rally. The Polish biker was introduced to the rally-raid discipline by his father Marek, who finished in the top 10 of the bike category in 2003 (in 9th place), before going on to achieve an even better finish with 7th place in the car category in 2014, accompanied by his friend Jacek Czakor. While rally-raid enthusiasts have recently witnessed meteoric raises by Mason Klein, Bradley Cox and Edgar Canet, Konrad’s pace of progress displays determination, patience and a certain dose of efficiency: no premature exits, an improvement of several positions on each edition and the prospect of finishing 13th in Yanbu. “I can see that I’m making progress each year. My aim is to become an official factory rider, break into the top 10 and then battle in the upper reaches of the rankings,” he asserts without boasting and with arguments that carry weight.
On commencing his fifth participation, the rider from Warsaw set himself the goal of moving up the race hierarchy. He is very likely to achieve this tomorrow but the big loop around Saudi Arabia has not been easy and not without pain. “These two weeks have tested my patience and my resilience,” he explains calmly. “On the second stage, my shock absorbers didn’t work properly when I hit a rock, causing me to fall and injure my wrist. On stage 9, I crashed again. I didn’t hurt myself too much but I damaged the bike fairly badly. I lost a lot of time repairing it because it was on the marathon stage and I also spent plenty of energy finishing the repairs at the bivouac-refuge. I’ve had a lot of things happen to me but I’m proud that I haven’t thrown in the towel. My plan is to be at least in the Rally 2 top five and the overall top 15. That’s where I am at the moment in spite of everything that’s happened. It goes to show that I’ve worked very hard and that I’m capable of doing even better”.
Paradoxically, it will be on completion of the most difficult Dakar he has experienced that Dabrowski junior will accomplish his best result. The career plan that the 25-year-old has in mind seems all the more coherent as it perfectly incorporates the need to deal with the twists of fate on an unpredictable race: “The Dakar is a metaphor for life. You have to take it day by day. You have to remember what your long-term strategy is and what you want to accomplish, which is what we do during the race and throughout the rest of the year”. Looking far ahead to aim high may well prove to be the winning formula for Konrad.
