61 is the magic number for Norbert Dubois
Dakar 2021 |
Stage 1 |
Jeddah
> Bisha
January 3
rd
2021
- 07:27
[GMT + 3]
The French biker is back after more than a decade, but his ninth participation is about to take him to cloud nine. It is all in the numbers!
His remarkable look and face are well known to all those who were part of the Dakar family at the time of the last African editions. Norbert Dubois also revelled in the crowds in the avenues of Buenos Aires when hundreds of thousands of aficionados turned out to welcome the rally to South America. The man from Paris is back after a long hiatus, calmly taking his motorbike through the scrutineering process. "I haven't been idle even though I last entered the Dakar in 2010", he explains, focusing on the Africa, where he narrowly missed out on victory twice. His long-held passion for exploration made him want to come back to the Dakar and discover the dunes of the Saudi desert. At the same time, the numbers seemed to align for the carpenter-cum-biker: "I've always worn race number 61 throughout my rally-raid career. Once, I even happened to finish a special in 61st place while wearing number 61 and sitting in 61st place overall! However, with five Dakar finishes under his belt including a career-best 31st place, everyone hopes to see him finish higher than 61st. On the other hand, the rest day in Ha'il has his name and number on it: "9 January is my 61st birthday, so I absolutely need to stay in the Dakar until then."
