Marc Coma

Seven years ago, an intruder sneaked into the Dakar elite. He was a beginner. An unknown name for the “Africans”, although the Spanish Enduro scene already knew about Marc Coma’s talent. On an experimental motorbike called the CSV and with the aid of Carlos Sotelo, Coma finished the muddy European prologue stages in sixth place. In Africa he managed to finish among the top twenty, and on the day he had to retire he was setting the tenth fastest time of the stage.

The following year, in 2003, and part of the official KTM structure, with Nani Roma and Isidre Esteve as team-mates and with the support of Repsol YPF, Coma got his first chance to race a Dakar with a good bike and he didn’t waste the opportunity. Riding his single-cylinder in the middle of a pack full of fast and powerful twin-cylinder bikes, Coma more than achieved his objective by finishing the Dakar in 11th position with four third places in different stages.

Marc Coma, motorbike rider from his earliest years, had a racing background at home. His father, Ricard, managed to finish fifth in the Spanish Senior Motocross Championship. There was always a motorbike at home. Both his father and his uncle were big fans and this tradition was passed on to little Marc. The first bike he rode was a Montesa Cota 348 under the guidance of his uncle at the age of 8. While he was still learning, Marc used every moment that his uncle did not have an eye on him to get on the Cota and disappear onto the mountain tracks around his home.

After his uncle’s trial bike he got his own, a Puch Cobra 74 with which he had his first “races” with his friends in his hometown. Then, as long as he got good grades at school, he got a motocross Honda CR 125 and he began to take part in his first real races. These first races were followed by county championships, regional championships and finally the national championship. He dedicated himself to this speciality up to the age of 18 but Marc didn’t see his future on the circuits, so before giving up and looking for a normal job he thought he would try his luck in Enduro. Marc had already made up his mind that he wanted to try and become a professional rider.

From that moment on, Marc focused on Enduro and his first victories and success arrived quickly. In 1995, Coma became Spanish Junior Champion in the Over 175cc class on a 250cc KTM. After that Marc joined the National Enduro Team and got a silver medal at the following year’s World Enduro Championship. That result was followed by several other brilliant results in the following years, such as 4th place in the European Senior Enduro Championship, the under 23 Enduro World Championship, the Enduro World Championship for Nations and 3rd place in the Enduro World Championship for Nations.

But the Dakar had already caught his eye and in 2002 Carlos Sotelo, a former Dakar rider, offered Marc the chance to ride a bike that had been built by Sotelo himself, the CSV – with a Suzuki single-cylinder engine in the Arras-Madrid-Dakar. As long as the bike and the mechanical parts lasted Marc had an incredible experience and even managed to clinch a sixth place on one of the initial stages. He couldn’t finish the race, but the Dakar had him hooked. That same season he tried his luck at the Baja Aragon and in his first participation he finished second.

In 2003 Marc went back to the Dakar, this time on a KTM with Nani Roma and Isidre Esteve. Despite competing on a single cylinder and breaking his wrist on one of the final days of the rally, Coma reached Dakar in eleventh place. An excellent result considering his limited experience in this race. As a reward for his performance, Marc Coma got the chance to go back to the Dakar in 2004 with the same team. He was the perfect foil for Joan Roma and Isidre Esteve, but five stages before the end of the race he had a bad fall and his bike hit him on his head. Coma lost consciousness for a short time but fortunately the initial worries gave way to relief after the medical check revealed that there were no serious injuries but a strong blow to his head and to his right wrist. Relief gave way to helplessness, because it meant the end of his participation in the African rally.

With the firm objective of continuing with his learning process, Marc Coma had a brilliant start to the 2004 season in the World Cup. Marc finished second overall in the first round staged in Tunisia, with three stage victories in his account. He was second again in Morocco and together with his team-mate Isidre Esteve took a historical one-two finish for the Repsol KTM Team, stepping onto the two highest steps of the podium. Coma took part in the Sardinia Rally, finishing in a deserved 6th place, preparing his participation in the Baja Aragon. That preparation together with the excellent shape of the young rider turned out to be essential, because he managed to carry off the victory in this prestigious race for the first time in his career. But not everything would be good news. He was on his way to finishing second in the Rally Egypt but the sudden death of Richard Sainct made all the KTM riders decide to retire from the race in tribute. The last race of the Championship didn’t benefit Marc either because, despite winning two of the four stages the transmission shaft broke, preventing him from fighting for the victory in the UAE. Marc was finally seventh overall in the World Cup.

In constant progression, Marc Coma proved to be fast and reliable throughout the 2004 season, two essential requirements needed to fight for the Dakar 2005. And Marc started with a single clear idea in his mind: to make up for the previous year. However, this target only made him obsessed and he never managed to ride calmly, gauging the risks he was taking. He led the race on several occasions and although he would have agreed to the result before the start right away, in the end, second place was not good enough for him. It did not reflect everything he had done in the race, all he could have achieved and all he had suffered. Coma had put in a superb performance and could have won the race. He was capable of it and very self-assured, no crashes, taking good care of the bike and following the plan step by step. Unfortunately he came across small setbacks, such as running out of fuel 3km before a refuelling. He was able to continue thanks to his team-mate Gio Sala, but lost some valuable time. The cancellation of legs that could have been favourable to him and especially the death of “El Carni” and Meoni affected him, although he was always among the leaders.

In his fourth participation in the Dakar, this natural and extroverted enduro rider made a dream of his come true, although there were several other targets to be achieved. Already confirmed as one of the best riders worldwide, Marc Coma faced the 2005 Cross Country Rally World Championship in high spirits and was also looking forward to other national and international races. Mechanical problems prevented him from finishing the “Nevada McMillin 1000” and the Baja España Aragon, but he ended up taking the victory in the prestigious Rally Sardinia. He participated in four of the seven dates in the World Championship. He won two, the Rally de las Pampas in Argentina and Rally Pharaohs in Egypt; he finished second in the ORPI Rally Morocco and had to retire from the Rally Dos Sertoes in Brazil while having a clear lead in the race. He reached the last round in Dubai at the top of the leaderboard and just when it seemed that Lady Luck was turning her back on him – battery problems returned after similar problems in Egypt – he finally managed to finish second in the UAE Desert Challenge and to clinch his first world title. A fair and deserved reward for his efforts and sacrifice.

At the age of 28 the Spaniard became a reference rider in raids. The experience and maturity he had gathered helped him to tackle his main target with guarantees: the 2006 Dakar Rally, where arrived in tip top shape. Caution was the most important thing on the first few stages, because there was little to win but a lot to lose. He successfully completed the stages in Portugal, which were the least favourable for his KTM. He arrived in Morocco with its stony, treacherous tracks, and on the fourth stage Marc was already leading the rally, where he would stay to the end. Marc and the whole Repsol KTM team suffered a big setback halfway through the race when Andy Caldecott had a fatal accident in Mauritania on the stage after the rest day in Nouakchott. There were doubts, but the team was closer than ever and decided to face the tough challenge together.

Everybody knows that this rally is not won by the fastest but by the most consistent and those who make the fewest mistakes. Marc took seven second places and despite having problems finished every stage except for one, where he finished 6th, among the top five. He did not take any stage win, but his masterly, and at the same time safe and calculated riding style, finally made him into the winner of the 28th Dakar Rally, making one of his biggest dreams come true. Coma became the second Spanish rider to win it after Nani Roma his team-mate at that time won it in 2004.

In addition to the Dakar 2006 victory, Marc got five consecutive wins in the World Championship when he was defending his title. Since a rider’s best five results are counted for the championship, Marc’s victories in the raids of Patagonia-Atacama (Argentina and Chile), Sardinia, Morocco, Egypt and Dubai allowed the Repsol rider to take his second consecutive title in the World Championship, an unbeatable preparation to prepare the 2007 Lisbon Dakar Rally.

However, the tough nature of the African race is not just a myth and a single mistake can become really expensive in Africa. After winning three stages, Marc Coma was getting closer to the Senegalese capital with a big lead in the overall standings after clearly dominating the 2007 Lisbon Dakar Rally up to then. But only two days before arriving at the mythical Pink Lake, the Repsol rider made a mistake on a complicated navigation section that sentenced his participation to failure. Trying to get back to the right track, Marc crashed and was forced to retire from a race he had completely under his control.

But the painful retirement from the mythical race did nothing but motivate the Spanish rider, who was determined to show that he was still the same as always. Hew won the Raids World Championship for the third year in a row, ruthlessly dominating all five rounds of the calendar. His victories in Tunisia, Sardinia, Patagonia, Egypt and Dubai showed the maturity and experience of the Repsol rider, who returned to Lisbon as favourite and ready for the 2008 Dakar.

However, terrorist threats caused the 2008 edition of the Dakar to be cancelled, and so the team immediately began to think of new objectives, the first of these was the Dakar Series. The first round, the Central Europe Rally, saw Coma impose his authority on the first special but a fall on the second forced him to return to Barcelona with two small fractures on his right knee. He returned to competition riding in the Rally Dos Sertoes, a World Championship round held in June, finishing in fourth position.

Before summer, the Repsol rider enjoyed the taste of another victory when he won the Baja España Aragon, and in September he took part in the second round of the Dakar Series, the PAX Rally. He finished on the podium again, in third position, and soon afterwards flew to Dubai for the UAE Desert Challenge. Coma was the star of the race, on a terrain that he dominates better than anybody else (it is no coincidence that he won the two previous editions), but a breakdown five kilometres from the end of the penultimate stage meant that he finished back in seventeenth position.

After waiting one year, another chance to take on the toughest race in the world was given to Coma. The setting had changed, but the Dakar spirit was still there: thousands of kilometres against the clock, across dunes, fighting exhaustion… An adventure that began with the Repsol rider as a firm favourite to win, and he won, and with an overwhelming superiority, showing that he is in the best form of his career.

The curtain was raised on January 3rd and from the very first second, from the first control, Coma showed that this race was not going to get away from him. Three years had passed since his first win, two since his second Dakar was cruelly snatched from him at the worst moment, but now the time had come to show his superiority again. He won the first leg with a lead of more than twenty minutes over the rider in second place, and day after day his advantage just grew and grew until it was up to one hour and a half, on the tenth leg, three days before the finish.

Coma sentenced the race from the first few metres and maintained a firm grip on the lead at all times, protected by his two team-mates from the Team Repsol KTM, Jordi Viladoms and Gerard Farrés, who did an impeccable team work. With this victory, the Repsol rider became the first Spaniard to get two victories in the legendary rally and so he wrote another golden page in the history of Spanish sport.

Season 2009 continued with another win in the Abu Dhabi Rally and a second position in Tunisia, after being injured in the third leg of the Sardinia Rally when he was once again dominating the race. He returned to competition after the summer and after reaching the top of the Mont-Blanc together with Dani Pedrosa and the television adventurer Jesús Calleja. The setting of his return was the Morocco Rally, a race he won, showing that he was in full form for a new Dakar edition.

In 2010, again in Argentina and Chile, Coma concluded his eighth participation in the Dakar in fifteenth position, with four stage victories and 6 hours and 22 minutes of penalty. After more than 9000 kilometres covered in 14 days of competition – nearly 5.000 of them timed – the race was conditioned by a polemic penalty in the resting day that ended all chances for the Spaniard.

Overcoming such a tough blow, Marc Coma showed once again that he was probably the fastest rider in the world on any desert he would tackle and, honouring his quality, in the 2010 season he won again the Raids World Championship. He finished first in the Abu Dhabi, Sardinia, Dos Sertoes and Pharaohs Rallies, apart from a second place in the Tunisian Rally – first of his category – , winning again the World Championship in a season he divided his time developing the new KTM 450. He made his debut with it in the last round of the World Championship, the Morocco Rally and won three stages and the third overall position, an excellent prelude for the Dakar 2011.

Marc Coma’s ninth participation in the Dakar, in 2011, finished with another well-deserved victory. His performance was faultless and he was able to wait the right moment to launch the ultimate attack to overtake his main rival, French rider Despres, with whom with this result he was tied with 3 victories each. With the new KTM 450 an the arrival of other strong makers and riders, such as Chaleco López, that edition was really difficult, but Coma was able to put together a good performance, keep the concentration and become again winner of the toughest race in the planet. That amazing start of the year was completed by the Repsol rider with triumphs in the rallyes of Abu Dhabi, Sardinia and Pharaos in the Raids World Championship.

And in 2012 it was the Peruvian capital, Lima, where the rider from Avià finished his tenth participation in the Dakar. After fifteen days of an intense and close battle with French Cyril Després, the Repsol rider was able to achieve a very good final second position. After achieving more stage victories than any other rival and also overcoming other non-competitive troubles, only a failure on his KTM 450 Rally’s gearbox in the penultimate stage prevented Coma from achieving his second consecutive golden touareg.

Nevertheless, where the Repsol rider left no option to his rivals was in the Cross-Country Rallies World Championship. Coma won the two first round of the series – Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge and Sealine Cross-Country – and only needed his third place in Sardinia to become Five-times World Champion, before the fourth and last round in Egypt.