BRAKING NEWS
David Knight at the Dakar, Nortons roll again, Kawasaki’s KLR update.
When first time Dakar riders return home, they usually gibber about the pain, exhaustion and punishing terrain. But, being a five time enduro world champion made of teak, 42-year-old David Knight had a different set of problems. ‘Physically it was fine for me – it was a lot less intense and hard on the body than an extreme enduro,’ he tells Bike. ‘I was made-up that I finished but I was gutted the event was over because I was enjoying it and starting to improve. People thought I was joking but I really wanted to do a third week. I’d love to go back. But I’d want to train for it next time.’
The lack of training was down to Covid, which stopped
David from completing the five rallies he’d pencilled in for practice. That meant navigation was a problem. ‘I’d only ever done navigation at the one rally I did in Spain, so it was new for me. I was probably the least experienced rider who’s ever done the Dakar – the other guys are doing rallies all the time. ‘There are three boxes [roadbook, mileometer, compass] that you have to look at, and the top boys are looking at all three all the time. I was looking at one to start with, then I got to two, and by the end of the rally I was figuring out how to look at three. The faster you go the harder it gets and there’s a very fine line between going fast and getting lost. ‘You’ve got to ride at the speed you can read the road book at. I had to think “I might be quicker than them boys ahead of me, but they’re better at navigating and I’ve just got to learn.” Once I accepted that I got into a trail riding mentally – ride safely, get to the finish. I know I could have gone a lot faster, but would I have finished?’ Although David brushes over the physicality of the event, that’s not just because of his riding skills – he is notorious for ignoring pain. ‘I broke some ribs on the second day,’ he mentions. ‘I’d pulled over to let Carlos Sainz in a Mini buggy through and couldn’t see because of all the dust. I fell off at about 3mph but landed on my head and chest. I knew I’d done my ribs straight away because I’ve done them loads of times before. I was dreading the next day because I thought it would be agony, but it wasn’t too bad. It could have been worse, and might have done me a favour because it slowed me down – that’s how quick it went wrong at 3mph, so it made me think a bit more. That’s when I decided to cruise around and get it finished.’