N° 179 - TEAM DESERT ROSE
- OULD LEKHAL
- Baham
- MRT
- 09/01/1979
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Baham Ould Lekhal: "The desert is my terrain"
The Dakar has built its legend in his country. Baham Ould Lekhal is Mauritanian. As a child he too dreamt of taking off among the bunch of bikers he had noticed in the desert.
But in 2007, the dream stopped too early. He had to quit after four stages due to mechanical problem, without even having managed to take on the dunes of his country. "I was waiting impatiently to finally ride in Mauritania. In Europe I had suffered a few problems. I was 187th when we arrived in Morocco and in just one stage, I climbed up to 93rd spot. Once in Africa, bikers tend to slow down. For me, it was the opposite. The desert is my terrain and that’s where I can turn things around".
Cruel hazard, he had to leave the rally on the 9th of January, his birthday. "At the exit of the bivouac a member of the organisation stamped my card and wished me a happy birthday. I was very touched. I was so much into the race until then that I had forgotten!"
The child from Nouakchott who had jumped on his first bike with the French kids of the embassy neighbourhood, isn’t ready to give up. "I train on a bike since the age of 20 to manage to finish the rally. In 2007, my second-hand 660 KTM was badly prepared. Now I have a new bike (KTM 690) and I’ve trained a lot more seriously".
