The PRICES is RIGHT

Few Aussie athletes have demonstrated the same hard-core toughness, spirit of adventure, love of competition and ability to bounce back, than "the boy from the back of beyond". Yes, we check out the crazy career of off-road, enduro motorcycle racing world champ and two-time Dakar Rally winner, TOBY PRICE...

- DARRYL FLACK

The motorcycle division of the 9,000km Dakar Rally is the most gruelling motorsport event in the world. To win it takes something special. To do it in just your second attempt is unprecedented. Meet Toby Price. Standing on the top step in 2016 as the first-ever non-European to win the motorcycle section, Australia’s newest superstar said, ‘This is just insane!’ A year earlier the tough-as-teak bloke from beyond the black stump surprised himself when he claimed third on debut behind winner Red Bull KTM teammate Marc Coma, and Paulo Gonçalves. In doing so Toby became only the second Australian to stand on the Dakar podium after Andy Haydon claimed bronze in 1998.

The world-famous event was first staged in 1978 as the Paris-Dakar, departing the chic French capital for the foreboding deserts of Senegal until security threats in Mauritania led to its cancellation in 2008. It moved to South America in 2009 under the Dakar banner and has been described as the Mount Everest of motorcycling. The similarities are striking. You really need to know what you’re doing when conditions change in a heartbeat, using your higher powers of judgement when fatigued and freezing as you depart pre-dawn with 850km in front of you, or suffering dehydration riding into a 45-degree sunset. Ascending terrain 3,500 metres above sea level, some Dakar riders retire due to altitude sickness. Only half of the bike field makes it to the end.