Sara Garcia: “At the Dakar the hardest thing is fatigue”
18/05/2022
Lisa Cavalli
Sara García is a well-known rally rider. She has had remarkable results in the Dakar Rally. In 2021, she raced the Dakar Rally Malle Moto finishing 44th in the overall classification of the Moto category. This was a truly remarkable performance for the Spanish rider who was not only the only woman competing in the Original by Motul class, but also greatly improved her overall result of 86th place in 2020. In 2022 Sara managed to race and finish the Dakar in 74th place.
Here is our exclusive interview.
At what age and how did you get interested in motorcycling?
I started at a very young age, at the age of three, but I got hurt pretty quickly with my mother, on a PW 50, a minimoto my parents gave me. I got really scared, so I didn’t get back on an off-road bike until I was 14, and at that age it was already a bit late to start training. Then, when I was 18, a friend ‘tricked’ me, cowardly, and got me involved in competitions and I started competing in Motocross in the regional championship of Castilla y León, where my hometown, Zamora, is located. I competed for several years in motocross until a shoulder injury made me switch to rallying. And then from the age of 18 I went many times to Morocco with my father, which is also a passion for him and at the time it was also a job, because my parents had the Yamaha dealer in Zamora, where I lived. So I can say that the passion for motorbikes was ‘included in the family package’! My mother thought that having a girl would finally get rid of motorbikes and instead… it was worse than having a boy!
This year was your fourth participation in the Dakar. What attracts you so much to this tough race that you always want to be there?
Well, I think the Dakar is a race that everyone who likes the off-road world follows and loves, because of its ability to convey the adventure of the Dakar, for us amateurs at least. And for all the sacrifice that goes into both getting to take part in the race and being able to finish it. So, I think all this is what makes me love this race.
Staying on the subject of the Dakar, you also managed to make it to the end in the Original by Motul category, without assistance. What were the biggest difficulties?
I think the hardest thing you have to struggle with is fatigue, not only because you have to drive, which is what all the riders in the race do, but also because when you finish a stage you also have to be your own mechanic, and I think that’s the big difference in the ‘Original’ category. Then the ability to keep your concentration, especially in the last stretch before arriving at the bivouac, when you think about the problems you had during the stage, what you have to solve, what is a priority. Well, it was a great challenge! But it was great as a rider to be able to face this challenge and overcome it on two occasions.
What happened to the ‘Gorda’? Can you tell us why you named your 2020 bike that?
The bike is currently here in Madrid. This weekend is the Motorcycle Show (“Vivi la Moto”), here in the capital, and the “Gorda” (the fat one) will be on display on the Yamaha and Larsson stand and if anyone is at the show and wants to see it they will find us there! You know, I called it that because for us 2022 was the first year we could compete with real rally bikes. Before that we had our WRs which we used for the national championship and the Bajas world championship, so for this race we put on a kind of Frankenstein-style armour to achieve the goals we needed for the Dakar, range, navigation, etc. So for me it was my normal bike, but ‘greased’ with petrol tanks, navigation tower, etc., hence the name ‘Gorda’, because it’s the heaviest bike I have. I have the small motocross bike for training, the trials bike which is like a bike for me, the enduro bike and the bike I use for rallies here in Spain and for the Bajas, which is a WR practically standard. And then there’s you, the Gorda, for the Dakar and for rallies that need more autonomy.
At the end of December 2021, one week before your departure for the Dakar, you tested positive for Coronavirus but then the second test was fortunately negative. How did you experience that shocking moment?
I did the PCR test coming out of Spain and it was negative, then I flew to Arabia and the test that the ASO (the Dakar organisation) did on me was positive… it seemed impossible! According to protocol, the PCR was not to be repeated, there was no other test, but with 7 days of quarantine, which would have excluded me from the race, which started on 2 January, because the confinement had to end on 3 January. So I spoke to the organisation and they told me it was impossible for me to participate in the race. I think then, because there were several positive cases, the protocol was changed and they started to repeat the tests. I was 100 per cent sure that it was a false positive. The lab had to process a lot of tests, I think it was almost 3,000 PCRs in three days, so I was sure there must have been a mistake, and with the second test it was confirmed that I was negative. I spent three and a half days locked up in the hotel, I couldn’t go out, I couldn’t see anyone, it was very hard because I had spent a whole year preparing for the event, and for a positive PCR that you even think is an error, you stay out of the race and throw away all the work you’ve done, well… you can imagine… a thousand things go through your head, but in the end everything was resolved and we were able to participate in the race, so I’m very happy because the Dakar 2022 was a gift for me!
Besides being a rider, you are also a very good mechanic. How important do you think it is for a rider to have this technical knowledge of motorbikes?
Well, I think engineering is not very applicable to racing, it would be different to be mechanical, especially in the Original category where it would be ideal, because the engineering world is more about computer calculations, and we are quite far from that level, because actually the top teams. The factory teams use engineers and telemetry, and we on the other hand work with completely stock bikes, the preparations we do are super basic, because at the end of the day the Dakar requires a lot of durability, and so we choose to keep the stock bike without doing weird things with the computer!
Tell us what has been your most beautiful emotion since riding a motorbike?
I think it was the chance to share trips to Morocco with my father, that was special for me. He hasn’t been riding motorbikes for four years because he’s a certain age, he’s 63, and he hung up his boots because of pain in his hands and joint problems, it hurt quite a bit and he had to stop. So until then I didn’t give it much importance and now that I can’t do it anymore I look back and it’s something special.
How did you experience the terrible lockdown period? For a pilot like you who is always on the move, it must not have been easy.
Horrible! It was horrible! We’re lucky enough to live in a big house, and upstairs I have a little gym, so I used to run off and release some energy upstairs, and then at the yoga studio I was at they started doing online classes, and so I started doing yoga every day online, a session in the gym, some stretching… and I was practically all day training at home. But then they let the professional athletes out, they let us out early enough to train, so I took the bike and I had all the energy in the world to burn!
You and Javi Vega are one of the most iconic couples in the Dakar and to see him ask you to marry him on the podium was a beautiful image for the whole motorcycling world. I won’t ask you how you experienced it because I can imagine the enormous emotion. I ask you instead: what does it mean to you to share your passion with your partner at this level?
I believe it is fundamental, especially for people like us who dedicate a lot of time because the motorbike is my hobby, I have my job and then there is the motorbike which is my hobby, even if I do it in a fairly professional way. But in the end you dedicate many hours to him, so either you have someone at your side who dedicates the same time to him or you don’t have other hours in the day to have a relationship, well… it’s happened to me with other partners that I don’t have time, the 24 hours of the day they fly between work, training and sleep! And so you miss sharing your passion with those who are at your side and I believe that Javi was the piece of the puzzle that fit together perfectly, because he also knew how to bring out the best in me: I would never have seen myself at the Dakar and when he he put the Dakar project on the table, I replied that I wasn’t prepared and that I couldn’t, but he told me that I was more than ready and that we would go. Imagine later when he told me that there was no budget and therefore the only way to participate was in the Original category… I told him that I wouldn’t be capable of it and instead he showed me that I was capable. The first year I took a big blow, because I had left out many things to carry out this project, but in the end I continued to fight and work and managed to reach the finish line on two occasions. So Javi is a fundamental pillar in my life, and it means everything to me to be able to share my passions with him!
Plans for the future? Will we also see you again at the Dakar 2023?
Well… for now you can send me all the projects you want! For now there is no project for the 2023 Dakar yet, we are working on multiple fronts but nothing is confirmed, so for now we can’t say anything. This year I will compete in the Bajas world championship again and in the Spanish rally championship, which is perfect training for the Dakar.
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