The first stage of the Dakar 2021 was bound to be a challenge and as expected Michael Burgess battled the tough Saudi Arabian desert from Jeddah to Bisha.
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The day started out in the heat and then about 100km into the liaison he was met with cold conditions paired with darkness and fog, making it quite difficult to see.
"The special started off quite fast and dusty and I couldn't see a thing as I didn't read my roadbook for about 30km as I was just scrolling through it," Burgess said.
"I decided to slow down to follow the roadbook properly but then five or six bikes caught up and past me but I just let them go so I could do my own thing."
Burgess was now reset and ready to see out the the rest of stage, but the trickiest part of the day was just about to hit him.
"We came into rocks like you would see on Mars for miles," he said.
"I watched a few people fall of their bikes, I was able to slowly pick them off one-by-one.
"The rocks were the majority of the stage and quite taxing on the bike and myself."
Overall Burgess was elated to have knocked over several challenges all on the first day of what many would consider the toughest rally on the planet.
"I made a few errors with navigation as it was getting very tricky," he said.
"I would make a mistake and everyone would follow and then would watch me figure it out and continue following.
"I feel great to have day one out of the way with no crashes.
"Bring on day two."
Burgess finished the first stage in 35th position in the bikes class with a time of 04:00':56"
After the first stage fellow Australian and two-time Dakar Champion Toby Price (2016, 2018) leads the bikes with a time of 03:17':49".
The second stage is a 685km run from Bisha to Wadi Ad-Dawasir.
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