N° 259 - TEAM QUADS & BIKES
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| Vehicle |
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| MODEL | MAKE |
| YAMAHA |
Philippe Herbé hardly chose the easiest vehicle to ride on his first Dakar, as he’ll attempt to take on the challenges of Argentina and Chile on a quad. «It is heavier and not as agile as a motorcycle. It is also more complicated to ride and doesn’t offer as much protection as a car», believes the Frenchman. « You need to have arms as large as thighs.» Philippe isn’t overly concerned about the physical side. He has put in more than 10 hours per week for the past year and a half on his conditioning, which has seen his squash game greatly improve.
Philippe Herbé’s goal will be double for the 2009 Dakar. Personally, he hopes to complete the rally. In his team he will be the domestique for 2006 world rally-raid champion in the quad category and serious favorites for the win on the Dakar, Christophe Declerck. «I am going to try to stay as close as possible to him in case he has a problem.»
While this business owner has been riding quads for ten years, he got his start in motor racing on a motorcycle, but an accident in which he escaped «miraculously uninjured» pushed him to stop riding bikes for something less risky. «When I was on a bike, I had a hard time not forgetting that there was something else rather than the track I was riding on», Philippe Herbé explains. «One day, I was a bit dazed. I crossed a road and ran into a car.» While he stopped riding a motorcycle, his dream of participating in the Dakar did not die. «It is one of the last sporting, human and psychological adventures that a man can do.»
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