CS Santosh tunes up for tough Dakar ride

CS Santosh’s return to the two-week long rally will be an emotional one. After his career-best finish of 34th in the 2018 edition, the 37-year-old Indian crashed out with a concussion the following year. But tragedy struck in Dakar 2020 when his Hero MotoSports teammate Paulo Goncalves died in an accident during the seventh stage between Riyadh and Wadi Al-Dawasir.

It is that time of the year when rallyists spend most of their waking time crouching over their bikes, traversing vast stretches of land to prepare for their ultimate test—the Dakar. Scheduled between January 3-15, the world’s most celebrated rally raid will be held for the second successive year in Saudi Arabia after spending 11 years in South America.

CS Santosh too has been training in the Iberian Peninsula for the last five months to compete in what will be his seventh Dakar. His return to the two-week long rally will be an emotional one. After his career-best finish of 34th in the 2018 edition, the 37-year-old Indian crashed out with a concussion the following year. But tragedy struck in Dakar 2020 when his Hero MotoSports teammate Paulo Goncalves died in an accident during the seventh stage between Riyadh and Wadi Al-Dawasir. Consequently, Hero pulled out of the event. Santosh’s challenge will be to work with the feelings from earlier this year before driving off in the dirt.

“It was a difficult time for the whole team (to get back together). We’ve all had our share of ups and downs,” Santosh said over a video call from Spain. “What happened this year is something we didn’t expect, it came as a big shock. It’s never easy. It’ll definitely bring back a lot of memories when we go back to Saudi. It was the start of a new chapter for all of us. We did what we could to move forward. But I’m happy to see the team back together and working to go back.”

The Bengaluru-born completed three of his first four Dakars, and this time too, finishing is the primary target.

“Every year we have renewed goals but with the Dakar it’s one consistent goal: make it to the finish and see all my teammates there. That will be an incredible Dakar for me. Every year you’re able to gain a little more speed and experience so I know I can expect to do much better,” he said.

In view of the ongoing pandemic, the Road to Dakar—a series of rallies preceding the big-ticket event—was comparatively shorter. Multiple events—Merzouga, Morocco, Silk Way, Desert Storm—were either cancelled or postponed. With limited races and opportunities to train, Santosh’s preparations have been hampered.

“Usually we spend a lot of time in Morocco (for sand dunes), we do quite a few rallies in the year so that we know what to expect in the Dakar. Of course, we would have liked to spend more time on the bike, in the desert, do some races. We could not do any of those. I can’t say this was ideal but given all of those restrictions we did a fairly good job of getting as much time as possible,” said Santosh.

The rally shifting from South America to West Asia has also brought its own set of challenges, something which Santosh could not completely grasp due to the premature withdrawal of the team from Dakar 2020. South America was full of people cheering on the participants—like in the Tour de France. But Saudi was lonely with the riders crossing vast stretches of desert on their own.

“Saudi was very different compared to South America which had huge terrain variation. But Saudi had its own challenges. It’s a massive desert. It was a really fast race so that’s what we take away from this year,” said Santosh. “In South America because of varying temperatures you’d have more of a fatigue because you’ll have really hot days followed by really cold days. In Saudi, temperatures are much cooler and it was definitely more suitable for the bikes, more enjoyable. In the mornings it is so cold that the body hurts but other than that I enjoyed the stages.”

This will be the 43rd edition of the Dakar, convening and culminating in Jeddah. The rally will see competitors travelling a total of 7,646km of which 4,767km will be competitive, divided into 12 stages.