“Break down the barriers was a wonderful experience”

If there is one competitor who does not have a glamourous business it is Ton van Genugten. Together with his sister, Van Genugten runs a family business that has specialized in manure. His company TonTrans collects the ‘shit’ at cattle farms, turns it into fertilizer and transports it to farmlands. With four stage wins the Dutchman was the most successful truck driver of the 2018 edition of the Dakar. Due to technical problems on the penultimate stage he missed out on a possible top 3 classification. The daily results however showed what the Team De Rooy Iveco driver is capable of and with the same crew as last year Van Genugten has set the bar high.

T.v.G.: “2018 was a great Dakar, but the end was a disappointment. The power steering broke in a stage full of feshfesh and twisty mountain tracks. Bernard, my mechanic, had to help pulling and pushing the wheel to get through. It was like a double day in the gym. This is what can happen in a mechanical sport and I am happy it didn’t occur on one of the first days, but it was just such a shame in regards to the final result and the four stage wins we had. I had been close to winning stages in the years before and to finally break down the barriers was a wonderful experience. But I’d rather finish on the podium without a stage win than finish in eighth with four wins.”