How does a tree surgeon from South Africa become a rally racer entering theMorocco Desert Challenge, one of the toughest off-road races in the world?

威廉Avenant, a Karoo native, is about to embark on an epic adventure. Although Willem has been riding bikes since he was a child, starting on his dad’s Honda Express 50cc, the thought to compete in a rally race had never entered his mind… until recently. “One of my most vivid early childhood memories was watching Rally Dakar on TV with my father at the start of each year. This early childhood memory was the start of why I have been obsessed with rally since an early age”, Willem tells me. Coming from enduro and adventure riding, Willem finally took the leap and started entering South African races such as the Kalahari Rally and the Tankwa, and next year, he is gearing up for the big one: the Morocco Desert Challenge.

“我选择了MDC，因为虽然达喀尔仍然是梦想，但只要达喀尔是一个国家的比赛，我就会感到高估和价格过高。真正的达喀尔比赛的遗产是遍历国家，不成为一个国家种族，所以我想，如果你要做一个国家种族，那么有很多便宜的比赛进入。我喜欢MDC是关于的 - 它并不像达喀尔一样严重，而且有关乐趣，但它也是世界上第二大的集会，它还没有通过南非骑手的自行车完成“。

For Willem Avenant, rally racing is all about the ultimate challenge, a test for yourself as a rider and as a person, and the adventure on another level. “I love rally racing because it strips us down to the bare basics it challenges us on a level you don’t find in everyday life anymore. Most people can ride a bike fast, fewer can ride a bike fast well(with skill), and even fewer, a select group of people, can ride a bike fast, with skill, for a prolonged period of time. Those people are rally racers.

Rally combines focus, endurance,skill, perseverance, and passion in one action, distilling us to who we really are. If you want to see a person’s true character, go and have a chat with them in the middle of the night in a bivouac after 5 or 6 days of tough racing, then you will see what kind of person he or she is. In a rally, you can not hide from yourself, so you can not hide your personality from other people”, Willem says.

Balancing Rally, Family, and Business

Coming from adventure and enduro riding, the rally racing world is both demanding and expensive. To add to it, Willem is trying to juggle rally racing, family life, and business; unlike pro riders, he can’t dedicate all of his time and energy to racing, yet he’s determined to make it work.

“My family is fully behind me. My daughter rides a bit, and one day, we would like to do a rally in an SSV as a father-daughter team. For now, though, it’s just me on the bike; my wife and daughter often accompany me to the races, which is a blessing, but at the same time, rally is a very selfish sport, and it’s hard to find balance. My life is split into three – family, business, and rally, and not always in that order. This can cause tremendous strain; when you are living the rally reality, you are always compromising on family or business, because you can not compromise on rally as it is too dangerous: when you#’re in a race, you have to be 100% focused and present in the moment, and this can be hard for a family to understand. Even so, they support me fully because they know this is who I am and this is my passion. I am humbled and grateful for this, but it’s definitely not always easy!”

Purpose and Freedom

It’s certainly no walk in the park to race a rally like the Morocco Desert Challenge as a privateer, let alone one who still needs to focus on business and family life. It’s hard, it demands sacrifices, and it’s pushing limits to the max; so why do it? Why go through all that hard work, training, balancing everyday life, and riding just to line up at that start line at MDC and perhaps one day, the Dakar?

“当我与其他骑手的激情同意时，我感到真正的目的，地方和自由。当你在一个特殊阶段出来时，你们都有一个共同的目标，当一群人分享同样的目标和焦点时，有一些神奇的东西，某种能量。是什么让拉力队员不同的是，我们喜欢实现这一目标，同时将我们的自行车，身体和思想放在极限压力下，只是为了看看我们是否可以做到这一点。That’s a bit crazy in and of itself… But once you have completed a really hard rally, you share an experience with the other riders who have competed, and it’s an experience that nobody in the world can understand if they were not at that specific event. It is almost like some kind of shared trauma, so even if you don’t know a person well, just the fact that you shared such an experience together ties you with a special bond, and it’s impossible to replicate anywhere else.

I think rally racing also makes me a more focused person, and it changes my perspective on life and how I deal with problems and challenges, and in so doing makes me stronger.”

如果您想了解Willem是否完成摩洛哥沙漠挑战，请按照他在他的社交媒体上并欢呼他！