Daniel Sanders has kicked off the Dakar Rally in fine style, finishing second in the prologue - but he didn't sound confident about the prospect of spearheading a double-pronged Australian assault on the motorcycling crown at the great race in Saudi Arabia.
Sanders, popularly known as 'Chucky' in the motorcycling world, was beaten for victory in the 27km opener on Friday by just 12 seconds, only bettered by Spain's Tosha Schareina, who took his first Dakar stage win on a factory Honda.
The Red Bull GasGas rider Sanders eclipsed his more lauded compatriot Toby Price, in the prologue that determined the starting positions for Saturday's first stage, with the two-time winner admitting he made mistakes on his way to finishing only eighth, 51 seconds behind Schareina.
But Sanders, who admits he's come into his fourth Dakar somewhat under-prepared after breaking his leg in a testing accident in the Australian outback last year, did not sound too happy after his tough day.
"Physically, I’m not at my best," he said. "Same as last year (when he finished seventh).
"I had the elbow injury last year with only one month on the bike beforehand and then came to the Dakar hoping for the best.
"We’re just trying our best every day and, hopefully, the leg can hold, but now it’s different to training, because when you’re training you can ease off a little bit, but when you’re racing you have to push a lot.
"We’ll try to survive every day and get as far down the track as we can because it’s going to be a long, tough Dakar.
"With an injury, it’s not going to be fun."
But the 29-year-old from the Yarra Valley will give it everything, just like last year when he suffered a sore elbow, food poisoning and had a thorn stuck in an arm muscle for 10 days during the race
In the top T1 cars section, Audi's Mattias Ekstrom took the prologue honours, finishing 23 seconds ahead of Toyota's American Seth Quintero, with nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb third for the Bahrain Raid Xtreme team.
