- 2 years ago
Ashish Raorane quit his job in the merchant navy and set about pursuing his ultimate goal – competing in the Dakar Rally’s Malle Moto class. Athletes tackle the treacherous rally without the assistance of a team, sheer grit carrying them through each day’s ordeal. Now the Indian motorsport athlete is preparing for his next Dakar as a privateer, readying himself for another battle with the dunes.
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00:00 (car engine roaring)
00:03 An intense passion for the arduous
00:10 cross-country rally raid life.
00:13 - People often tell me that I don't smile enough,
00:16 but give me a good track and a good motorcycle.
00:20 And I'm grinning in the helmet.
00:21 - A desire to go it alone,
00:25 even in the most challenging situations.
00:28 (upbeat music)
00:30 - When I did my first couple of rallies,
00:33 I looked at what was the toughest thing to do in this sport.
00:36 And it was easy to find the answer.
00:39 It was the Dakar.
00:40 - And a love for the Malimoto class,
00:43 where without team support,
00:44 a rider must rely on sheer grit to survive each day.
00:48 - I think the biggest mental barriers
00:50 are basically betting on yourself
00:52 and then putting all your finances
00:54 into something like this.
00:56 Knowing that this could very well put you in a hospital.
00:59 (upbeat music)
01:01 I'm Ashish Rao Rane.
01:11 I'm a motorsport athlete,
01:12 competing in cross-country rally races across the world.
01:16 And most notably, I've been at the Dakar rally
01:18 in the Malimoto category.
01:20 One of the few Indians
01:21 that have actually ventured into that category.
01:23 It's kind of my dream that more and more athletes
01:26 from India make it to the Dakar
01:28 and see what the rally raid world is about.
01:30 - 5 a.m. on a Friday, too early for most people,
01:34 but not for Ashish Rao Rane.
01:36 The Indian off-road rally raid athlete
01:39 is all set for a morning of intense training
01:42 at his Off-Piste Racing Academy training ground.
01:46 Ashish has a simple goal,
01:48 to compete in as many Dakar rallies as he can,
01:51 going it alone as a privateer
01:53 without the support of a factory team.
01:55 It's a hard journey that's involved quitting his job
01:58 in the Merchant Navy and switching professions
02:01 to become a riding coach, training other rally hopefuls,
02:05 but also training himself
02:06 for his next love affair with the sand.
02:09 - Sand has a very peculiar way of teaching you lessons
02:13 and putting you in your place.
02:14 It'll really teach you not to take anything for granted.
02:18 Like, you know, you're cruising one moment
02:20 and the next moment you plant your face down there.
02:25 - Ashish first got an off-road motorcycle in 2015
02:28 and was instantly hooked.
02:30 By the end of the following year, he'd gone rallying,
02:33 competed in his first off-road rally raid event,
02:35 the Raid de Himalaya,
02:37 and decided he'd like to see how far he could go
02:40 in the sport all on his own.
02:42 - It's one of the few sports where, as an amateur,
02:46 you can go and race against the top athletes
02:50 in the world in the sport.
02:51 When I did my first couple of rallies,
02:53 I looked at what was the toughest thing to do in this sport.
02:56 And it was easy to find the answer.
03:00 It was the Dakar.
03:01 - And he began attacking his goals
03:04 with a single-minded focus,
03:06 even when he was on duty at sea.
03:08 - For me, I thought it was a midlife crisis, to be honest.
03:12 And then it just became a crisis, like a big crisis.
03:15 Now I'm just, I've made my peace with it, I guess.
03:19 He was a pretty big guy and I told him,
03:22 you're gonna kill yourself with this weight, right?
03:25 And he said, okay, and he went to ship
03:28 and he was back in three months, 11 kgs lighter,
03:32 just because I challenged him to lose that weight.
03:35 - For Ashish, it was a huge comfort
03:38 that his wife, Tanya, had his back no matter what.
03:41 But it was the challenge he set himself,
03:43 rookie to Dakar competitor in five years,
03:46 that dominated his thoughts
03:48 and motivated his every move from that moment on.
03:51 A steely determination kicked in that would serve him well,
03:55 especially in his first marathon event,
03:58 the Africa Eco Race in 2020.
04:01 - What I hadn't planned for, or let's say,
04:03 ever thought about was that I would get something
04:05 like dengue two weeks before the rally,
04:07 and that's what happened.
04:08 And I was in the hospital for two weeks,
04:11 starting from like 11th of December, I remember,
04:13 and the rally starting 2nd of Jan, right?
04:17 So I came out of the hospital like 27th of December,
04:20 and I was clearly told by the doctors
04:23 that I should not be going to this rally.
04:26 - But for Ashish, giving up before the event even began
04:29 simply wasn't an option.
04:31 - The question to really ask is,
04:34 if you stop now or if you give up now,
04:36 would you be able to live with the outcome of that decision?
04:40 And I think that's how I have kind of
04:43 learned to make decisions now.
04:45 That's what the sport has taught me,
04:46 because if I give up now, okay,
04:49 that's the easy way out now, and I would feel good
04:51 for a while, but then what about tomorrow?
04:55 Would that decision still make me happy?
04:57 - Recovering from illness was just one worrying aspect.
05:00 As a privateer on a shoestring budget,
05:02 the motorcycle he was riding was a compromise.
05:05 Not a full-blown rally-raid machine,
05:07 but a KTM 450 EXC, an enduro bike with an extra fuel tank.
05:12 Eight days into the rally, things got tricky.
05:16 - I had some issues with the motorcycle
05:18 and I was running out of fuel, so I had to stop.
05:23 But the place where I stopped was literally
05:25 like literally middle of nowhere.
05:28 And because it wasn't a medical emergency,
05:31 I wasn't chopped out.
05:33 I had to wait for the sweep truck to get there.
05:35 But the sweep truck only got to me the next morning.
05:40 So I spent the whole night in the cold desert.
05:44 As the sun went down, I started getting really cold, chilly,
05:48 and there was a sandstorm.
05:49 And the other thing I had to worry about
05:51 was then scorpions and snakes in the desert
05:54 because I saw a few just around sunset.
05:56 I did my best to put in to use whatever survival training
06:01 I have, even from my background as a mariner.
06:04 So yeah, I think it's an adventure
06:07 I would remember all my life.
06:08 - The adventure only strengthened his resolve
06:12 to compete in the Dakar, and he began training
06:14 for the event's toughest category, the Male Moto class,
06:18 in which riders compete without a support crew.
06:20 Instead, they have a box with spares and tools
06:23 and service and repair their motorcycles
06:25 on the go on their own.
06:27 - My first experience was that of isolation.
06:32 You just feel so alone because if there's a team,
06:35 you move together, you have other riders with you.
06:38 So it's a very lonely experience in the beginning.
06:40 One of the things I quickly realized,
06:42 and it's probably the mistake that most first-timers
06:47 in Male Moto make, is if you keep pushing yourself
06:50 to still go through that entire checklist every day
06:53 at the expense of rest, that's not a good strategy to have
06:58 because the machine will take a lot more
07:00 than actually the human can.
07:02 - Ashish got into the rhythm of going solo, though,
07:05 until things unraveled on stage five of the rally.
07:10 - I went over a dune and I landed straight on my head.
07:13 This was not a very high-speed crash.
07:16 Because I landed on my head,
07:18 I think the impact was very high.
07:19 And when I tried to get up, I immediately blacked out.
07:24 So consequently, yeah, 10 minutes later, I was airlifted.
07:30 - The injury meant that he missed three stages of the rally
07:34 but was allowed to finish the event
07:36 under the Dakar Experience category.
07:39 - The general advice was, okay, everything's clear,
07:42 but it's a concussion in the end,
07:43 so it could show up 72 hours later as well.
07:46 So the recommendation wasn't like, okay, you can go race,
07:50 but be cautious.
07:52 So yeah, I really enjoyed the rest of the race.
07:55 Overall, it was a good experience to finish the rally.
07:58 Not the finish I was hoping for,
08:00 so I was kind of sad about it.
08:03 Like, I had finished the Dakar, yet I was kind of,
08:06 I had mixed feelings because I wasn't
08:07 at the actual finishers' podium.
08:09 But yeah, that's something to correct next year.
08:14 - Ashish has accepted that injuries are par for the course.
08:18 - I have both my shoulders are separated,
08:20 seven millimeters and 11 millimeters, both sides.
08:24 And your regular run-off-the-mill fractures
08:27 and knee injuries, PCL tears.
08:31 There's been a lot, but like I said,
08:33 I've been lucky so far where there haven't been injuries
08:38 that have required extensive surgery or anything
08:41 or put me out, like more than maybe half a year.
08:44 - But the real barrier he's had to leap across
08:49 is the hurdle in his mind.
08:51 - I think the biggest mental barriers
08:53 are basically betting on yourself
08:55 and then putting all your finances
08:57 into something like this,
08:59 knowing that this could very well put you in hospital.
09:03 - As a privateer, finding the money for racing
09:05 is a constant battle.
09:07 And the costs of competing in the Dakar are massive.
09:10 In 2021, Ashish funded 90% of his Dakar campaign himself.
09:15 Things have since changed.
09:16 - This year looks way more promising on that front.
09:19 So I think it's gonna be exactly the opposite.
09:22 I would hazard like 90% would be sponsored
09:26 and then 10% through my funds.
09:29 - The privateer life means Ashish
09:31 is used to doing things on his own.
09:33 He's his own nutritionist and fitness trainer.
09:35 He's his own mechanic.
09:37 And everything happens in his apartment
09:39 or at the off-road academy he founded nearby.
09:42 - I would like to be remembered
09:46 as one of the best motorsport coaches rather than athletes.
09:50 And that's what I'm working on now.
09:53 Today you need to build that confidence with this soil
09:55 and then you'll be okay on the dry.
09:57 (motorcycle engine roaring)
10:01 - I don't know whether it's me or the bike.
10:15 I need to figure it out.
10:16 - It's not the bike.
10:17 - Your two, I lost it.
10:20 - It's not the bike.
10:21 - I think he's really hard on us,
10:24 but at the same time, he's also knows when to hold back.
10:28 And he's been super supportive from the start of my journey.
10:31 I wouldn't be where I am or where I want to go
10:34 without Ashish, I would say.
10:35 - Like when you use the front and...
10:37 - The guy's a legend, right?
10:38 So training with him is an overstatement,
10:42 but learning from him is a great honor.
10:45 We want him to achieve whatever that he wants to achieve
10:47 and help whichever way we can.
10:49 And that's the ultimate goal.
10:51 If it's Dakar, it's Dakar.
10:54 - For the 2024 Dakar,
10:56 Ashish has been accepted in the Moto class,
10:58 not the Male Moto category.
11:00 So he will have the luxury of a support team,
11:03 but he's got a sense of unfinished business
11:06 when it comes to the event's most punishing category
11:09 and hopes for another outing in the Male Moto class one day.
11:12 - Given that the Dakar itself is so tough
11:16 and Male Moto kind of adds another layer
11:19 of difficulty to it.
11:20 So I've always wanted to do difficult things.
11:25 - In the meantime, he's training in earnest
11:28 for his next battle with the dunes and desert
11:30 with Tanya by his side.
11:32 - You could be crossing a road tomorrow
11:35 and meet with a terrible accident.
11:37 Of course, the odds are much higher in motorsport.
11:40 You just take a breather and you go with the flow, I guess.
11:44 - To Ashish, the months of hard work,
11:46 the financial burden of the Dakar
11:48 and the brutality of the event
11:49 are simply part of the journey.
11:51 Worth it in his endless quest to reach an environment
11:54 in which he truly thrives.
11:56 - People often tell me that I don't smile enough,
12:00 but give me a good track and a good motorcycle.
12:03 You know, I'm grinning in the helmet.
12:05 I think the feeling of not just finishing a rally,
12:10 but the feeling of just finishing every stage
12:12 is really good.
12:13 And I can't remember a single rally
12:16 where the last few kilometers
12:18 where I haven't cried in the helmet.
12:19 It's just the emotion that you can't control.
12:23 (upbeat music)
12:25 (upbeat music)
12:28 (dramatic music)
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