Martin Michek for Ruik: This was absolutely the hardest Dakar! Why did he almost not finish it and how was he limited by his injury?

Czech racer Martin Michek has had another successful Dakar. He finished this year’s Dakar Rally in eleventh place, despite all the complications he encountered during this year’s Dakar Rally. In an exclusive interview with Ruik, Michek talked about his leg injury, the toughest stages, the support of the Czech fans and his feelings at key moments.

Finishing 11th in the motorcycle category, the best Czech biker and the best non-factory rider – this is Martin Michek’s calling card at this year’s Dakar. He lost one hour and 42 minutes to the winner Kevin Benavides.

In an exclusive interview with Ruik, the Czech rider talked about his performance at this year’s Dakar Rally. And already at the beginning of our chat Michek described this year’s Dakar as the absolute hardest, having already gone through the real Dakar hell on the second stage.

“I can only compare it to the Saudi Arabian Dakar, where I have to say that this Dakar was the absolute hardest. The second stage, 430 kilometres in dry riverbeds full of rocks, rocks, trials, rocky fields – you can’t imagine how hard it is.

And especially 430 kilometres in this terrain is very exhausting. For the last 50 kilometres I thought I don’t even know how I’m going to finish. Anyway, I wasn’t the only one who made it to the finish line by the skin of my teeth. It was one of the toughest stages of the Dakar,” he says of the Dakar hell.

After the third stage he was caught in the rain, which made the track itself another hell. The heavy rainfall also affected the seventh stage, which was even impassable for the motorcycle category. According to the official results, Michek placed successively 21st, 21st, 19th, 14th, 16th and 19th from the first to the sixth stage.

Unpleasant ankle injury, making up a personal best!

So on Saturday all the bikers had the day off as the track was too dangerous for the bikes. But he had no idea what complications would happen the very next day. The native of České Budějovice injured his ankle badly in the eighth stage, yet he successfully finished in a solid eleventh place.

What’s more, in order to even make it to the ninth stage, he had to be forcibly helped into his racing shoe.

And that’s when Michek matched his personal stage best at the Dakar Rally, namely ninth place. It should be noted, before the results were adjusted, he was even in seventh place.

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“I finished the stage, which gave me a big mental lift. I knew it was going to be a problem, but probably not that much. For the first 50 kilometres from the moment it happened to me, I was considering whether I would finish or finish. Fortunately, it straightened out,” he commented on his injury.

“After we got my foot in the boot I knew it was tied up pretty perfectly. The only thing I had to watch out for was to make sure I didn’t get knocked out somewhere. But the ninth stage was great, there were passages that suited me. It brought me ninth place, which caused me to move up in the overall standings,” he added.

The penultimate stage – a key moment in the Dakar Rally

The final stages then brought Michek 14th, 16th, 17th, 19th and 11th place, and in addition to health problems, he also encountered technical ones.

And it happened on the penultimate stage when his bike’s injector completely went. And that was the moment when Michek, in his words, was close to not finishing this year’s Dakar.

“Well, I was glad that it went when it could have gone. In the end, the bike got me to the finish line in the penultimate stage, because two kilometres after the finish line I was already doing 20-30 km/h. In the last 50 kilometres it really stopped going, in the final ten kilometres I had to go 80 instead of 160.

On the other hand, I was very close to not finishing. However, after the finish I met Stefan Svitek, who dragged me with a rope to the nearest assistant, where we changed the injector. It wason this stage that I may have lost my chance for a top 10 finish, as I ended up four minutes down in eleventh,” he said in response to a very hot moment in this year’s Dakar.

Michek on the massive fan support

During this year’s Dakar Rally, Michek was supported by many Czech fans. It helped him a lot in key moments.

“The support of the Czech fans was one of the greatest. We have to thank all the fans who supported us a lot. For me personally, this is very important because they write me messages, they write stories about us and this is where you can see the interaction of the Czech fans, that they want to share it with us.”

You can find the full story and detailed information about how the Dakar Rally actually takes place, what he encountered during the race and where we will see the 34-year-old this year in the video above, so don’t hesitate to come by.

Sources: Ruik Talk, Rallye Dakar, Martin Michek – Instagram