Knowing how to fall isn’t important, it’s knowing how to land

Dakar 2025 | Stage 9 | RIYADH > HARADH
January 14 ^th 2025 - 10:04 [GMT + 3]

Adam Peschel, a newcomer to off-road bike racing, had a plaster cast taken off his right arm three weeks before the Rallye du Maroc, on which he won his place on the Dakar. The Czech stuntman has a special secret allowing him to keep going: he can fall like nobody else!

 There are always good reasons to approach your first Dakar with some trepidation but this was not the case for Adam Peschel, who has been preparing his debut for several years but who had a handicap that would have likely been a stumbling block for many riders, because he only had a participation in the Rallye du Maroc as experience of the rally-raid discipline and off-road biking. The traditional school of motocross and enduro, or even trial biking, was not one that the rider form Ostrava went to. Instead, for the last 18 years, he has been participating in ‘stunt’ riding while working as a stuntman in television and cinema. “It’s nothing like what happens on the rally. We do a lot of showing off, wheelies and all sorts of figures. Of course, I’ve learned good balance and how to handle a bike well, but the racing part on this rally is so tough”. It is a violent culture shock for Adam, who can at least rely on his nerves of steel to remain in the race after eight stages, including a first week that was unanimously deemed to be extreme, with the 48 HR Chrono and marathon stages: “The Dakar is like nothing else. During the 850-km stage, my body and hands were hurting so much that I had to keep telling myself, ‘go on, you can’t stop’. I had to dig very deep to stay strong and resume racing after a fall, for example”.

Falling is both the crux of the matter and a strength for Adam, who has developed genuine skills in tumbling since he was a teenager. “I think I’ve fallen at least twenty times since the start of the Dakar,” calculated the stuntman. “Sometimes, I ride at my own pace and I suddenly hit a rock which throws me into the air, there’s only twenty centimetres or so in it. However, I’m pretty sure I know how to fall properly, in a position that helps me to avoid hurting myself. To be honest, I don’t have the time to think, I just think it’s become engrained in my natural instincts: I’m sent flying and I just instinctively know what to do”. For the moment, this recipe is working. Bike #127 and its rider have reached the bivouacs each evening, even in an honourable 45th place, as well as the fourth best debutant. The fall guy is not interested in the rankings but is driven by an absolute confidence in his ability to reach the overall finish in Shubaytah: “I’m 100% certain that I will get there, because I know what I’m waking up for every morning, even when it's tough”.