C S Santosh
Moto winner
“This year the challenge was obviously the heat. The stages were also all new and it was pretty fast. It was quite rough and that makes it very technical on a motorcycle, though it was also really good fun. “TVS was there, and it was much anticipated. “This was the best bike I’ve ridden. Most of my life I’ve ridden standard motorcycles with tweaked suspension but the motor has always been stock. This motorcycle was special, it was the first time the bike was built for me. It handled like a dream, suspension was on point, there was more power than in a standard bike and we did testing with this bike so overall it felt like a factory effort. Jordi was here from Spain to build the motorcycle for me and there was a huge comfort factor for me, and the whole team worked really well. This is the same setup that I will use on the Dakar. “Even when I’m leading, I am always pushing because the goal is always the Dakar. “I did not get lost. It was the night stage. I went through the TC where I had to get the time card stamped. The flow that I had, I went from the outside to the inside and the flag was on the outside so by the time I saw the flag I had already passed that corner. I was a bit confused and didn’t stop at the time control. They called me at night and asked why I didn’t stop and I said I couldn’t see anything and I got fined an hour. “There was talk about me not having raced anybody for some time. It’s nice to set the record straight, to let people know that I’m still the best there is and I wanted the point to be proved.”