Do you remember Allan ‘Robbo’ Roberts, the Australian KTM rider No 165 at this year’s Dakar Rally? The guy from Speed – an isolated village in Victoria – became a hero – not only in Australia but – for amateur riders around the world. Allan wants to try Dakar for a second year in a row but still doesn’t have any financial support to realize his dream. Be reminded that he spent all his money for the previous attempt…
Click here for our earlier feature on Allan Roberts
Prelude by Akis Temperidis
Story : Allan Roberts
Allan has about 40 more days to apply for the 2015 marathon rally and he turned to crowd funding for making it. He works hard for it. First he published his book “Hard Way Home”, where he narrates his two year adventure from England to Australia – 100,000 km on a heavy, old Honda Africa Twin.
Then, Allan created a page on www.pozible.com (https://www.pozible.com/project/180805) and goes for 40,000 Australian dollars – 22 lakh rupees. Reality is cruel for modern heroes though. Robbo has collected only 450 dollars so far – a tiny percentage of the money he looks for. Roberts spent all the money he had made from years hard work (around 120,000 Australian dollars), just to compete in the Dakar Rally 2014.
Here is a video of Allan’s Journey through Dakar
Anybody can help this guy with a pledge as little as 5 AUD (less than 300 rupees) but the amount will be credited to the rider only if his target is met. So it is a safe bet!
To promote himself, Allan Roberts uploaded a fantastic video with exciting shots from his first Dakar. Be reminded that the Oz guy not only made it to the end – a feat that only 40% of the starters managed this year – but finished 39th overall, a real achievement for a Dakar rookie.
Motoroids feels for this guy, for his naive, romantic but serious approach on the most difficult bike rally in the world. We asked from Allan to write a personal article especially for us and he did it. Enjoy it, we actually left his writing unedited. Then decide whether he deserves our help or not. For sure his words make us feel it makes sense to follow your dream, even if it looks crazy to anybody else!
For the first time he got to know about Dakar rally:
I was young maybe very early teens 13 perhaps, I saw highlights on a sports show we have on TV in Australia of these warriors riding these great big bikes across deserts in Africa at high speeds. I thought they were amazing and then when I was about 14 I was given a big picture of a rider on a Yamaha Tenere’ Rally bike with Dakar numbers on it racing across the desert. I had it up on my wall for years.
First time he thought about racing in Dakar:
After first discovering it all those years ago, I world dream of doing it one day, to be one of those warriors I thought they were.
The experience of the first ever race?
My first ever race was the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge in 2008 at the age of 29. A five day Rally Raid through massive dunes. I had no expectations except to finish this was my dream to compete in a rally event and the riders I was against where my heroes, guys I had only seen on TV and watched every year competing at the Dakar, some big big names. To the surprise of many I came second in my class and 11th outright beating some very well known pilots.
When did he start working on Dakar 2014?
Without knowing it, I started working toward this when I did my first race in 2008 as when I started my actual journey to Dakar. I had to submit a CV to “qualify” and it was this race in 2008 and some others that looked favourable to be selected from the 300 entries submitted. But the decision to work towards the 2014 Dakar was made early in 2012.It took well over 18 months for me to get the finance together, it also included not drinking alcohol for 14 months prior to the event. I was dedicated to training and making my dream a reality.
About the effort to organise the project (sponsors, bike, testing, races, mental and physical preparation):
It took over every part of my life. I spend many hours slumped over a computer sending out proposals to many many various companies looking for support, all to turn zero up. I was completely self funded and look back on it and wished I had of funnelled my energy into training more than looking for sponsorship. But I had to try, the dozens of rejections was disappointing. I stopped drinking fullstop and therefore had no excuse to train. I rode 100’s and 100’s of kilometres on my bicycle and ran many many kilometres, doing something nearly everyday to prepare the body for what was to come. Due to work commitments I was unable to ride my motorbike as much as I would have liked but did whenever I had a chance.Before the event I cleared my mind, I made sure I was prepared and had everything well organised on time or early to have no worries.Mentally I went into the race ready, physically I was fine also but one can always be fitter. I have learnt a lot of lessons from my first Dakar which would be invaluable to take into a second Dakar.