Date of birth: October 7, 1976Place of birth: Avià (Barcelona)Place of residence: Avià (Barcelona) Best Results 1995: Spanish over 175 cc Junior Enduro CHAMPION Spanish over 175 cc Junior Enduro CHAMPION by makes1996: Silver medal Enduro World Championship by Nations1997: 4th European over 175cc Senior Enduro Championship1998: Runner-up Spanish 125cc Senior Enduro Championship Enduro under 23 WORLD CHAMPION Enduro WORLD CHAMPION by Nations1999: 2nd overall Memorial Toni Soler 12th Enduro 250cc Senior World Championship2000: 3rd Spanish 600cc Senior Enduro Championship 10th 600cc Senior Enduro World Championship 3rd Enduro World Championship by Nations 2nd Enduro Indoor Barcelona Winner 600cc Senior Enduro de las Autonomías2001: Runner-up Spanish 600cc Senior Enduro Championship 9th Enduro World Championship 3rd World Championship by Nations2002: Debut in the Rally Arras-Madrid-Dakar (best class. 6th) 1st overall Memorial Toni Soler 2nd Baja España Aragón Runner-up Spanish 600cc Senior Enduro Championship (6th Scratch)2003: 11th overall Dakar 2003 Participation in the Rally of Egypt2004: Participation in the Dakar 2004. Retired 6th Rally Sardinia 2nd Rally Tunisia 2nd Morocco Rally 1st Baja España Aragón 7th Raid World Cup2005: Runner-up Rally Barcelona-Dakar 1st Rally Sardinia 1st Rally de las Pampas, Argentina 2nd Orpi Rally Morocco 1st Rally des Pharaons, Egypt 2nd UAE Desert Challenge, Dubai Cross Country Rally World Champion2006: Winner of the Lisbon Dakar Rally Cross Country Rally World Champion2007: 1st Optic 2000 Tunisia RallyFive years ago an intruder slipped into the Dakar elite. He was a beginner. An unknown name for the Africans, although the Spanish Enduro scene already knew Marc Coma’s talent. On an experimental motorbike called CSV, sponsored by Carlos Sotelo, Coma finished the muddy European prologues in sixth place. In Africa he managed to keep himself among the top twenty, and the day his bike broke down, he was making the tenth fastest time of the stage. The following year, in 2003, within the official KTM structure, having 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 adequate means and he didn’t waste it. Riding his single-cylinder and in the middle of a pack full of fast and powerful twin-cylinder bikes, Coma more than achieved his objective finishing the Dakar in eleventh position with four third places in different stages. Marc Coma, motorbike rider from his youngest years, had racing background at home. His father, Ricard, managed to finish fifth at the Spanish Senior Motocross Championship. There was always a motorbike at home. Both his father and his uncle were big fans and it finally went over to little Marc. The first bike he rode was a Montesa Cota 348 under the guidance of his uncle and at the age of eight. While he was still learning, Marc used every moment of inattentiveness of his uncle to get on the Cota and disappear on the mountain tracks around his home. After his uncle’s trial bike he got his own one, a Puch Cobra 74 with which he had his first races with friends in his hometown. Then, and always subject to good grades at school, he got a motocross Honda CR 125, with which he began to take part in his first real races. These first races were followed by regional championships, county championships and finally the national championships. He dedicated himself to this speciality until the age of 18 but Marc didn’t see his future on circuits, so before giving up to look for a job he thought to try luck in Enduro. Marc had already made up his mind and wanted to try to become a professional rider. From that moment on Marc focussed on Enduro and the first victories and sporting successes arrived quickly. In 1995, Coma became Spanish Junior Champion in the Over 175cc class on a 250cc KTM. After that title, Marc joined the National Enduro Team and got the silver medal at the Enduro World Championship of the following year. That result was followed by several other brilliant results in the years to come, such as the fourth place in the European Senior Enduro Championship, the under 23 Enduro World Championship, the Enduro World Championship for Nations and a third place in the Enduro World Championship for Nations. But the Dakar had already drawn his attention and in 2002, Carlos Sotelo, 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, at the Arras-Madrid-Dakar. As long as the bike and the mechanical parts survived, Marc lived an incredible experience and even managed to clinch a sixth place in one of the initial stages. He couldn’t finish the race, but the Dakar had already got him. That same season he tried luck at the Baja Aragón and in his first participation finished second. In 2003 Marc got 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 last days of the rally, Coma reached Dakar in eleventh place, an excellent result considering his little experience in this race. As a reward for his performance, Marc Coma had the chance to be back at the Dakar 2004 with the same team and team-mates. He was being the perfect squid for Joan Roma and Isidre Esteve, but five stages before the end of the race, he suffered a heavy crash, where his bike hit him on his head. Coma lost consciousness for some instants but fortunately the initial alarm gave way to relief after the medical check revealed that there were no serious injuries but a strong hit on the head and on his right wrist. And relief gave way to helplessness, because it meant the end of his participation in the big African raid.With the firm objective of continuing with his learning process, Marc Coma had a brilliant start of the 2004 season at the Raids World Cup. Marc finished second overall in the first round staged in Tunisia, with three stage victories in his private 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 on the two highest steps of the podium. Coma took part in the Sardinia Rally, finishing on a meritorious sixth place, preparing his participation in the Baja Aragón. And that preparation together with the excellent shape of the young rider turned out to be essential, because he managed to take the victory of the prestigious race for the first time in his sports career. But not everything would be joy. He was on his way to finish second at the Rally of Egypt, but the sudden death of Richard Sainct made all KTM riders decide to retire from the race as a tribute. The last race of the Championship didn’t benefit Marc either because, despite winning two of the four stages, the rear wheel shaft of his bike broke, hindering him from fighting for the victory of the Arab Emirates’ raid. Marc was finally seventh overall ins the Raids World Cup.In constant progression, Marc Coma proved to be fast and reliable throughout the 2004 season, two essential requirements to be ready to fight for the Dakar 2005. And Marc faced it with a clear idea in mind: making up for the previous year. However, this target made him only get obsessed and he never managed to ride calm, clearly measuring 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, the second place didn’t feel enough. It did not reflect all he had done in the race, all he could have done and all he had suffered. Coma had a superb performance and could have won the race. He was capable and very self-secure, no crash, taking good care of the bike and following the plan step by step. Unfortunately he was faced with little mishaps, such as running out of fuel three kilometres before the refuelling. He was able to continue thanks to his team-mate Gio Sala, but lost some valuable minutes. The cancellation of legs that could have been favourable to him and especially the death of El Carni and Meoni touched him, although he was always among the top. In his fourth participation in the Dakar, this natural and extroverted enduro rider made one of his dreams come true, although there were several other targets to achieve. Already consolidated 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 hindered him from finishing the Nevada McMillin 1000 and the Baja España Aragón, but he ended up taking the victory of the prestigious Sardinia Rally. He participated in four of the seven scoring rounds of the World Championship. He won two, the Rally de las Pampas in Argentina and Rally des Pharaons in Egypt; he finished second in the ORPI Rally Morocco and had to retire from the Rally Dos Sertoes in Brazil while clearly leading the race. He reached the last round in Dubai leading the standings and when it seemed that luck was turning him the back causing him again problems with the battery he had already suffered in Egypt, he finally managed to finish second at the UAE Desert Challenge and to clinch his first world title. A fair and deserved reward for his efforts and sacrifice.At the young age of 28 years, the Spaniard became a reference rider in raids. The experience and maturity he has gathered helped him to face his main target with guarantees: the 2006 Dakar Rally, where arrived in top personal and physical shape. Caution was the most important thing in the first stages, because there was little to win but a lot to loose. He overcame the stages on Portuguese ground successfully, which were the less favourable for his KTM. He arrived in Morocco with its stony, treacherous tracks, and in the fourth stage, Marc was already leading the rally, a place he wouldn’t leave until the finish. Marc and the whole Repsol KTM team suffered a heavy setback halfway the race, when Andy Caldecott had a fatal accident in Mauritania during the stage after the rest day in Nouakchott. There were doubts, but the team was closer than ever and decided to face the hard challenge together.Everybody knows that this rally isn’t won by the fastest but by the most consistent and those who make fewer mistakes. Marc took seven second places and, despite having some trouble, he finished all stages, except for one, where he finished sixth, among the top five. He did not take any stage win, but his masterly, and at the same time safe and weighed-up riding style, took him finally to become the winner of the Dakar Rally in its 28th edition, thus making one of his biggest dreams come true. Coma became the second Spanish rider to make it, after Nani Roma, his team-mate at that time, who made it in 2004.In addition to the Dakar 2006 victory, Marc has achieved five consecutive wins in the last season of the Raid World Championship in which Coma was defending his title. Since the five best results of each rider count 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 of the Raid World Championship, an unbeatable background to face the 2007 Lisbon Dakar Rally.However, the hardness of the African race is not a simple myth and any mistake can become really expensive in Africa. After winning three stages, Marc Coma was getting closer to the Senegalese capital with a large advantage in the lead of the overall standings after clearly dominating the 2007 Lisbon Dakar Rally so far. But only two days before arriving to the mythic Lake Rose, the Repsol rider made a mistake in a complicated navigation point that definitively sentenced his participation in the rally. Trying to get back to the right track, Marc crashed and was forced to retire from a race he had totally under control.But the painful retirement from the mythic race has nothing but spurred on the Spanish rider, who has decided to show that he is still the same and recently won the first round of the 2007 Rally-Raid World Championship held in Tunisia. Coma has shown great maturity and experience recovering from the crash at the Dakar. The Repsol rider won four of the eight specials and finished the rally in the lead, with a large advantage over his rivals thanks to his fast, safe and mistake-free riding style.
