Sandra Gomez Cantero: “Laia Sanz has been a landmark”

Sandra Gomez Cantero is world-renowned and has proved her worth from a very young age in the disciplines of trial and then extreme enduro, becoming world champion in Superenduro in 2016 and collecting numerous podiums during her career. In addition, she was the first woman at international level to finish the Redbull Romaniacs in the Gold category, participated in the Dakar in 2022 and was chosen as stuntwoman in the famous TV series ‘The House of Paper’, to impersonate Tokyo in the scene in which she breaks into the State Mint with a motorbike with a spectacular jump.

You started very young. Can you tell us what your first contact with motorbikes was like?

Well, I started when I was three years old, because my father liked motorbikes and he immediately put me on the bike, and at the beginning riding was a game, with him, with my brother, with my mother, and then one day I started racing, in Spain, in Europe, in the world! And eventually I find myself spending my life riding motorbikes, and I do it with pleasure.

You were the first woman to finish the Red Bull Romaniacs, one of the toughest events in enduro racing, finishing in 13th position. How did it feel to break this female taboo after 17 years?

I surprised myself! Four years ago I decided to focus more on hard enduro and I saw competitions like everyone else, as something impossible! I sat down with my father and told him that I wanted to take part in various races and to him no competition seemed suitable for some reason, and he was right: some races were difficult, some were long or dangerous, and for me at that time they were impossible. But then I had the opportunity to take part in the Romaniacs a few years ago in the Bronze category, and it is true that the Gold category was an unattainable dream for me, I wanted to race in the Silver category, the first time I competed seriously, and then Martin, the organiser, asked me why I did not try to compete in the Gold category, and I did not have much money financially, but he said he would help me if I competed in the Gold category. I knew it was impossible to finish the race, in fact the first year I ended up in hospital, but after the race I was left with the desire to come back the following year, I had seen how the race worked, I knew how I had to train to see if I could try again and finish the race.

And I had to take part in the Covid, in October, when it never stopped raining, it was very hard! I went ahead anyway, little by little, I wanted the wheels to keep turning, albeit slowly, but without ever stopping, and the other riders I found in the race told me that I was crazy, that on a certain road you couldn’t go and I tried anyway, if the first ones had made it, it meant that it could be done somehow, I just had to figure out how.

And little by little I managed to get to my goal. Then on the third day it was true that I couldn’t finish and by the rules of the race you can keep running and so I was left with this thorn in my side and the following year I managed to finish every day, doing the whole course and cleanly.

Fifteen seasons in the trials world championship with a fourth place in 2021. What do you like so much about this discipline?

Se ci penso ora, quindici anni nel mondiale sembra una pazzia, non sono riuscita a vincere ma mi sono classificata due volte seconda, e nonostante ciò ho sempre voglia di vincere quando partecipo a una gara, a un campionato o quello che si può.

Com’è stato il passaggio dal trial all’extreme enduro?

Well, the trial discipline has been my family since the beginning, it was my first discipline, I like it very much, it is very different from the others because it does not have speed, it requires mental effort and also the preparation is quite hard, because you can spend a whole morning training on the same rock, come back the next day and not be able to get over it, and this, for us who practise this sport, is very exciting.
Well, it was a series of circumstances. It’s hard to live with trial riding, and I saw that in hard enduro I could have things not easier but different, I was tired of the situation, of earning a little money for the world championships, staying all day training and I needed a new opportunity and I saw that hard enduro, where my brother was already racing, could offer me an opportunity and new motivation… and I can say that I found them, also the new sponsors like Mitas, Leatt… everyone treated me like a great rider, and that’s appreciable because in trials it’s not easy to find this approach.
It was a difficult start, I tell you, even I didn’t think I could finish those races, and to this day I still feel motivated to do races I haven’t participated in yet or finish some like the Erzberg Rodeo or some other crazy thing.

How do you prepare physically and mentally for the most difficult races, such as the Dakar?

Every race is different and so is the Dakar. For the Dakar I prepared myself thinking of a very long race, it’s many days, I had never done two weeks of racing, I had Romaniacs, ISDE (International Six Days Enduro) races or similar races as a reference, so I knew it was an extra week. I didn’t have much time, I tried technically to learn as much as possible with the bike and with the roadbook I tried not to make too many mistakes. I knew I would make mistakes because I was a complete beginner. Mentally, I kept the knowledge that there was always a long way to go to the end, after one day there was always more ahead, very long days. And in this way at the end I was able to make the days not seem so long, and I was aware that even if one day was going well the next one could be harder and longer, and I was therefore trying to counteract that phase, which happens to you mentally even in Romania or during the six days, where there are days when you end up destroyed, you wake up in the morning dead tired, but you get out of bed and your body slowly starts to reactivate and you have to have the mentality that there is still a long way to go. 
In Romania for example, when I was at the end of the race in the final straights where you almost see the goal, I kept thinking ‘there is still a long way to go’, because you don’t know if there is still a climb or a mountain or some other difficulty, so until you pass under the Red Bull arch it is better to keep thinking that there is still a race ahead.