“I live, breath and sleep Dakar!”
RIDER FACTS
- By his own admission Mykolas Paulavicius has no life outside the Dakar. No regular job, no hobbies, no girlfriend. He gets up in the morning thinking about the Dakar and goes to sleep at night still thinking about the Dakar. It has been like this for three years now and 2025 will be his first Dakar as a competitor!
- In his waking moments he goes to the gym, cycles, and trains on his bike at the Polygon military training ground in Lithuania. It is sandy so it doesn’t freeze but recently he’s been riding there in the snow…
- To earn money, he trains people how to ride enduro and fixes their bikes. All the money he earns goes into fuelling his Dakar habit.
- Ideally, he’d like to go and train in Dubai but he doesn't have the budget. The only time he goes overseas is to race in events so as to qualify for the Dakar.
2025 AMBITIONS
“I’ve wanted to go on the Dakar ever since I can remember. Here in Lithuania 97% of the population have heard of the race so if you ride off-road you have to go. Three years ago, I went as a mechanics for a couple of friends racing a side by side. I wanted to see what it was like and how the riders coped with it. You realise that it is harder than you think but by the time I got home I wanted to do it more than ever. To qualify for the Dakar I entered the 2023 Rallye du Maroc where I finished 38th overall and the Abu 2024 Dhabi Desert Challenge where I was 16th Rally2. Basically, I live like a professional rider except for one major difference: professional riders get paid! It is complicated to have any ambitions the first time you go on the Dakar. You don’t know the level of the other riders or how you will be for two weeks. I’m sure everybody says the same thing: that they want to finish, not damage themselves or the bike. If I manage all that I’ll be happy and so will be my family and sponsors.”
