ARAVIND K P PREPARES FOR DAKAR

The TVS rider participates in the Baja Aragon to get a hang of the Sherco-TVS 450

TTHE 2017 DAKAR MAY be a good five months away, but for TVS rider Aravind K P, the training has already started. While he is accustomed to the 450 FX he competed with in the Indian rallies, the works Dakar-spec Sherco needs some adapting to on his part. He has been training under Sherco-TVS’s lead rider, Joan Pedrero in Europe and to get international rally-raid experience he undertook his first cross-country rally in Spain called the Baja Aragon.

As it was his first time on the bike, Aravind’s sole aim was to complete the entire rally rather than focussing on position. The rally gave him a taste of endurance rallying as the Baja Aragon was spread over four days spanning 540km in all.

Aravind began the rally cautiously so as to get up to speed with the navigational system – something that’s new to all our riders in India. Hence he could only manage to finish 32nd overall, nearly a minute behind leader Joan Barreda. The following stage Aravind improved his ranking to 24th but in the third and the longest stage of the rally, he lost time and dropped down the order to 31st.

On the final day, Aravind gained 10 places and finished 21st, a very commendable result in his first rally.

After completing the rally, a satisfied Aravind said, “I am excited to have completed my first race. This was quite a good learning experience for me, especially riding with my experienced teammates. This is just the start of my road to Dakar. My preparations are going as per plan and the support from the Sherco-TVS team has been tremendous.”

Aravind will be continuing his training in Europe and will be taking part in the Rally of Morroco in October.