What does it take to win the toughest motor race in the world?

As the most gruelling event on the motor racing calendar gets underway, Kieran Jackson meets biker Sam Sunderland, the only British athlete to ever win the Dakar Rally – and he’s done it twice

Sam Sunderland is a two-time winner of the Dakar Rally (Getty)

Twelve stages, 13 days, 7,891 kilometres. This year’s 47th edition of the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia starts today (5 January), presenting another gruelling instalment of the event commonly known in motorsport circles as the world’s toughest race. Stretching from Al-’Ula on the west coast, to the capital Riyadh and beyond to Shubaytah in the southeast, before returning to the city of Yanu, 300km north of Jeddah, the Dakar presents rally-raid drivers and bikers with the ultimate test of skill, endurance and resilience.

“For track and field, it’s the world championships or the Olympics – the Dakar Rally is my Olympics,” says Sam Sunderland, two-time winner of the event and the only British athlete to ever come home in first place.

“When you look at the distance, terrain, the number of days – it’s too big. When you get to day eight and you’ve had five hours sleep each night and you have a wake-up call at 2.30am… caffeine quickly becomes your friend. It’s your bike and your bed. I’m so caught up in what I’m doing, keeping in touch with the outside world seems impossible.”