Ross Branch: “One of the toughest ones I’ve ever done”

Dakar 2024 | Stage 12 | YANBU > YANBU
January 19 ^th 2024 - 10:15 [GMT + 3]

Ross Branch, 2nd in the general rankings, has achieved the first podium finish for the Hero brand on the Dakar as well as his best personal performance.

“I feel on top of the world. It was a really long rally, probably one of the toughest ones I’ve ever done. Hats off to Ricky, he rode an outstanding race. It was really close up until a couple of days ago when he made a big push and got a gap on me a little bit. It was awesome. It’s so good to race these guys, good to be up here. I’m so happy for the team, they deserve to be happy because they’ve put a lot of work in and for such a young team, it’s a great result. I’m super happy to be up here. It’s been their goal to succeed since the team started and they’ve been working so hard to get that. I’m the lucky one. I get to go out there and ride my bike and have some fun. They have to do all the hard work back at home with all the development of the bike and everything. I’m just really happy and proud of them. I’m super happy for them as a team and as a country to be here. I definitely need to improve in the camel grass. I felt that we lost out a lot on those two days, but I’ve just got to go home and work on myself, it’s just me. Ricky was good every single day. He didn’t put a foot wrong during the whole rally. He deserves the win. He outrode me and was better than me this year, but I’ve got another eleven months to train harder and work better to come back stronger next year”.