KTM

“To win the six-day international enduro and now the Dakar, it’s a massive accomplishment. We are leading the world championship and we are going to try and defend that position, but we're not going to stop there and set our sights on the next goal.”

• A pure product of the Australian off-road motorbike scene, Daniel Sanders made a sensational debut on the Dakar in 2022, finishing fourth and the title of best rookie, just as his compatriot and mentor Toby Price did in 2015 (3rd).
• What followed was more painful: despite two stage wins and finishing third overall, he fractured his elbow and wrist in an accident during a liaison. A year later, he finished 7th after a nasty bout of food poisoning and a thorn stuck in a muscle in his arm... the last straw for a beekeeper broadly used to bee stings.
• The jinx still hasn't left him. On the approach to his fourth Dakar, he broke his femur during training in the Australian outback. It was a truncated preparation that didn't prevent him from reaching the finish in eighth place. Finally spared from health problems, the 30-year-old joins the official KTM team for his fifth appearance. ‘Chucky’, as he is known, is a serious contender for 2025, particularly after his brilliant overall victory on the Rallye du Maroc in October.