Dakar 2003. Inside the circus. Team diary

The great Nani
It would be easier to resign, surrender to fear and shut down the throttle. But there’s a guy from Folgueroles who doesn’t
 Zilla (Libya).- The higher the price the higher the value of things. Nani is paying an enormous, gigantic price to win this race. Sometimes due to his own errors, sometimes due to the errors of the others and sometimes due to bad luck… there’s always something between him and victory. But Meoni says it, and Auriol (the Clerk of the Course) says it, and the whole world says it: Nani will win a Dakar. The painful and epic scenes that, in a single moment have changed victory against terrible suffering, have been repeating in Nani’s African adventures. But he will make it, no doubt about it. And the they he makes it, we’ll see a lot of images, like the painful one in Egypt, in the penultimate stage in 2000, when he had an advantage of 20 minutes in the overall standings and there were only 70 kilometres left to get to the finish. There he was, leaning on the bike, with his goggles on and a too usual gesture of resignation. The engine was broken. Once again he had been so close. Or when he was left in the dunes with the broken bike, and there had been only Peterhansel and him, riding side by side in 1998. Or so many other times in which poor Nani, after exciting exhibitions of honour and courage had to see how the door to victory was slammed in his face. This is a rough race, but Nani is writing a legend. This is the hardest race of the world, but it’s much more for Nani. He dreamed about it since he was a little boy and he has been fighting so hard that every fall hurts deeply. Yesterday he was at the field hospital with serum, a terrible pain in the back and a broken arm. But what hurt him most was the heart. He didn’t understand the unfairness. During the first years Nani got the fame of a too brave rider, crazy sometimes. He recognises that. But during the last years, he has only crashed two times in the Dakar. Two. Others, like Alfie Cox, have about half a dozen of crashes per race. Look at Richard Sainct, he crashed yesterday, but didn’t get hurt. Nani crashed two times in the last four Dakars… and hasn’t won any of them, it’s getting more dramatic all the time. The day he manages to win, it will be a great party. Nani is not willing to be second. He plays to win. And that means to take risks, especially when a man has to face the desert all by himself, at more than 100 km/h. The easy way would be to resign, surrender to fear and close the throttle. But there’s a guy from Folgueroles who doesn’t. He ended up in the gutter many times. But all of this doesn’t mean that he’s not great. Really great. And the day he wins, his unlucky chronicle will make his victory be even more valuable than any other victory in the 25 years of history of this race.