Rally Dakar 2005

Repsol Drivers. Isidre Esteve
Date of birth: 15.5.1972Place of birth:  La Seu dUrgell (Lleida)Place of residence: Oliana (Lleida) Best results 1990: Spanish 80cc Junior Enduro CHAMPIONCatalonian 80 cc Junior Enduro CHAMPION1991: Bronze medal at the ISDE1992: Spanish 80 cc Senior Enduro CHAMPION   Catalonian 80 cc Senior Enduro CHAMPION1993: ISDE Gold medal with the national team / 2nd individual1994: 4th European Enduro ChampionshipISDE Gold medal with the national team1995: Runner-up European Enduro ChampionshipRunner-up Catalonian Enduro Championship3rd Spanish 125cc Enduro ChampionshipISDE Gold medal with the national team1996: 3rd Spanish 125cc Senior Enduro ChampionshipISDE Gold medal with the national team1997: Runner-up Spanish 125cc Senior Enduro Championship1998: ISDE Gold medal with the national team18th Rally Paris-Dakar5th Atlas Rally1999: Spanish 125cc Enduro CHAMPIONSpanish Overall TT Rally CHAMPIONISDE Gold medal with the national team11th Rally Paris-Dakar5th Rally Tunisia2000: Spanish Overall TT Rally CHAMPION3rd Spanish 125cc Enduro Championship12th Rally Paris-Dakar2001: 4th overall DakarWinner Production class at the Dakar2002: 5th overall Dakar4th Spanish 125cc Enduro ChampionshipWinner Raid del Altiplano Spanish Raid ChampionshipGold medal World Championship by Nations (10th Scratch)2003: Spanish Cross-Country Rally Champion5th Rally of EgyptWinner Baja Aragón2004: 23rd Dakar 2004 (1 stage win)Winner Morocco RallyWinner Dubai Rally4th Rally TunisiaWinner Spanish Gravel Rally Championship2nd Rally Raid World Cup  Regularity and absolute efficiency. Thats the best way to define a rider gifted with an exquisite technique who has shown a bomb-resistant strength in Africa. Isidre Esteve has participated in seven editions of the Paris-Dakar and has finished six. His only retirement was in 2003 because his bikes engine decided to stop working in the middle of the desert. If it wouldnt have happened he would have achieved a hundred percent efficiency, something really complicated in such a tough race. And the Dakar wasnt even part of his plans. He entered the race after a long successful career in Enduro championships, where he has achieved spectacular results. He admits that he did it without even knowing what was expecting him. He didnt even know the right button to turn on his bikes satellite navigator, a fact that earned him several jokes from much more experienced riders. Twenty days later, that was in 1998, jokes gave way to admiration when Esteve reached the Dakar beaches leading the promotion category, after overcoming all the races tricks without making any mistake. In 2003 he wanted to complete his statistics in an impeccable way and be the best squire to Joan Roma with one of the spectacular twin-cylinder bikes that KTM had made available to them. But it wasnt his lucky year. A crash fracturing his arm some weeks before the race forced him to reach the raid in a lower shape. His will and perseverance, as always, took him to the starting line, but he couldnt finish due to mechanical problems. Luck wasnt on his side in 2004 either. Although he managed to finish the raid, a whole series of mishaps made him loose all options to the final victory and he ended up carrying out the needed team work to help Joan Roma become the winner. We must not forget that he has not the physical shape of some of his rivals. But he makes up for the lack of power with an astonishing technique and a very pure riding style. Esteve might not be a spectacular rider but he is effective and he hardly makes any mistake. This allowed him to reach the Senegalese capital every time the mechanical aspects allowed him to do so. Reaching Africa and getting so may good results have little to do with fate. At home, in Oliana (Lleida), Isidre has an extraordinary collection of trophies won at Enduro competitions. The first title arrived in 1990. It was the Spanish 80cc Junior Championship. The difference between that small engine and the huge 700cc single-cylinder engine he used last year is really big, but ten years of intensive competition in Spanish and European Championships and the Six Days Enduro have given him experience enough to dare to face almost any challenge. His love for sports is certainly of big help. Good skier, Esteve is unable to keep more than five minutes still and when he is not practising on his bike or taking part in some race, you will find him jumping with his water bike on the Oliana dam, very close to his home. His perseverance and having practised several different sports have given him this special feeling that allows him to have regularity in all kinds of competitions. He joined the Spanish team for the Six Days Enduro very early, in 1991, to take part in the off-road motorcycle olympic games. He achieved a silver medal in his first year; the gold one arrived in 1994. He repeated the result in 1995 and additionally achieved honour positions at the 125cc Spanish and European Enduro Championships. 1998 was a year of inflection in Isidre Esteves sports career. He certainly had become a well-known Enduro rider and had nothing left to prove there. However he began to stand out in raids as well. He won the Baja Aragón showing that he has also a lot to say in long distance races, and the success at the Dakar was completed brilliantly with another gold medal at the Six Days Enduro in Australia. The gold medals at Enduro races where no longer news, because big raids had begun to become more and more important in his sports activities. In 1999 he finished the Rally Tunisia in fifth place, he was third at the Baja Aragón and once again managed to finish the Granada-Dakar, where he almost finished among the top ten. He arrived eleventh, giving another big surprise to all the expert riders due to his clean passes through the most complicated places. 2001 meant a spectacular jump. He did not only finish among the best at the Dakar, but also left most of them behind, achieving an extraordinary final fourth place. His superlative technique had beaten several teams with much better means and mechanics. This fourth place, including two stage-wins, allowed him to enter almost definitely the elite of those riders with a right to get a works motorbike. He also won the Baja Aragón and did the same at the Spanish Raid Championship. It was, with no doubt, one of his best seasons. In 2002 he achieved another excellent result at the Dakar displaying his usual efficiency and finishing fifth. In addition, he took the victory at the Rally del Altiplano and another gold medal at the Six Days Enduro. Already recognised as one of the best, his aims had changed materially and he was now thinking about podium finishes and the overall victory. 2003 was not a good year for Esteve at the Dakar; mechanical problems took him off the race after his big effort to get to the race despite being convalescent of an arm fracture. Some months later and while he was getting ready for the Dakar 2004, Isidre won the Baja Aragón for the fourth time, thus equalling the number of victories of his team-mate and friend Nani Roma. Both Esteve and Roma are the riders with the highest number of victories in this singular race. In 2004 Esteve returned to the Dakar with renewed ambitions and with a bike, the single-cylinder KTM, he already had the chance to test at the Egypt Rally, where he finished fifth. In the 2004 edition, Esteve wasnt anymore supposed to act as a squire, he was one of the candidates to the final victory. He won one stage and lead the raid several days until, first a crash and then a problem with his KTMs engine made him loose any option to the victory. He didnt give up and from that fateful day he became the perfect ally for his team-mate Nani Roma, supporting him until his victorious arrival in Dakar. Despite not taking the victory, Esteve proved to have qualities enough to be among the top and he has confirmed it this 2004 season. Always fighting for the leading spots, he took his first victory of an African raid in Morocco and his second at the World Cup in Dubai. He closed the season with two highlights: Spanish Gravel Rally Champion and runner-up of the Raids World Cup. Strong, in high-spirits and with an incredibly large experience, Isidre Esteve will be one of the men to beat at the 2005 Dakar, where he can and must be one of the big protagonists.