A DISABLED INSPIRATION
Tales of epic survival are spread liberally all around the Dakar. But one man in particular sticks out: Isidre Esteve. He was paralysed in 2007 in a motorbike accident in his native Spain, but by then he had already got the Dakar bug, having competed on a bike 10 times. Something as insignificant as losing movement in both his legs wasn’t going to stop him.
So in 2009 he was back, in a car with co-driver Txema Villalobos. It’s fair to say that things didn’t go well, as Esteve explains: “We had electrical problems, so I spent 20 hours strapped in the car. Because I can’t move, it was really bad for my skin, and I got terrible blisters that took me one and a half years to get over.”
It’s the sort of experience that would put off most people, but not Esteve. Instead, he and sponsor KH-7 made a special pillow that constantly massages his skin to prevent blisters.
Along with Villalobos, he has been back multiple times, competing with throttle and brake controls mounted on the steering wheel, while his legs are strapped in so that they don’t flail around in the cockpit. There’s a trigger to operate the clutch on the gearstick, but other than these alterations, his Toyota Hilux is completely standard.
Physically, it’s exhausting: because his entire world is controlled and braced through his arms, Esteve has to have hours of physio.
Interestingly, his struggles don’t concern making the Hilux go and stop – it’s the lack of feeling in his backside and legs that hinders him. Whereas able-bodied drivers can react as soon as they feel the car’s movement in the base of their seat, or even their feet planted on the floor, Esteve can’t react until the movement reaches his ribcage, the lowest part of his body where the nerves still function. So he can’t arrest a slide as quickly, which makes his achievements at Dakar all the more startling.
The thing Esteve is most proud of? That he’s in exactly the same class as able-bodied professionals like Nasser Al-attiyah and Carlos Sainz. He has no special dispensation, no extra time or help. He runs the same route to the same punishing schedule, strapped in his seat for around 10 hours a day. He is surely one of the most motivational individuals on the planet.