Yesterday Anastasia Nifontova became the first woman to ever complete the Original By Motul category of the Dakar Rally. This bike/quad class is for those who think the Dakar in general is way too easy and want to do it completely unassisted. Riders in this class not only don’t have support trucks running the stages behind them with parts and tools, but once they make it to the bivouac at the end of each (very long) day they have to do all work on their bikes themselves with no assistance. Furthermore there’s a limit to the amount of parts and equipment they’re allowed in the service area. Here’s the complete list of what Original by Motul competitors are allowed/provided:
- One red trunk which can be filled with the competitor’s choice of parts/tools (pictured above).
- One set of wheels and tires.
- One spare headlight.
- One 90L travel bag.
- One 25L backpack.
- One 2 person tent.
- One hygiene kit (muscle gel, wipes, disinfectant gel, ear plugs, sleeping mask).
- One “environmental carpet” (basically a mat to park the bike on in the bivouac to catch any fluids spilled during work).
- Free use of the generators, compressors, and blue tool boxes (pictured above) in the bivouac.
That’s it. For two weeks and 3,500 miles on a bike (1,900 of them competitive race miles) over some of the toughest terrain in the world.