Ashish Raorane completes Africa Eco Race against all odds

Dakar, 20 Jan 2020: The daring adventure of 38-year old professional Indian rally-raid rider, Ashish Raorane, ended in a dream finish as he completed the tough Africa Eco Race on Sunday. After completing the ninth stage in 54^th overall position, the Indian took the restart and managed to rejoin the last stage, the famous beach stage, as the Africa Eco race allows a restart.

The non-factory rider is self-funded for almost all of the events he has taken part and is attempting the Africa Eco Race for the first time. The Pune-based marine engineer has caught the attention of Luminox last year by his rally-raid exploits and is supported for the rally by the Swiss watch brand. Ashish was greeted by his wife and a few others as he celebrated with the Indian flag at the finish line in Dakar. Ashish was supported by Nomadas Adventure Racing Team of Switzerland.

The last stage offered a real driving treat but had no effect on the general classifications this year. There was, therefore, good humour and spirit on the finish line, situated at the edge of the Erg at the village of Teverit, around 30km from Nouakchott in Mauritania. For the record, there was no suspense in the motorcycle category, as the YAMAHA of Alessandro BOTTURI left two minutes behind the KTM of Pal Anders ULLEVALSETER and quickly caught the Norwegian. As a result, 1min 59sec was added to the Italian’s lead and BOTTURI therefore wins this 12th edition of the AFRICA ECO RACE by 3min 59sec from ULLEVALSETER.

Coming back to the Indian’s rally, after doing a superb job in the first leg, Ashish caught up with the reality of his adventure with a bike that did not have enough capacity for fuel when compared to the advanced bikes, and paid the penalty after a navigation error in Stage 10. At the half-way mark, before the rest day Ashish rode to a stunning 17^th Overall rank but the final week saw him nurture the fuel and reduce speeds. He was ranked 54^th in the 9^th stage before missing two stages as he ended taking almost 31 hours to reach the bivouac after he ran out of fuel. Ashish Raorane was classiefied 57^th in bike category after the 12^th and last stage, the Beach stage.

Ashish Raorane explained his tryst with the Africa Eco Race, that ran over 6,500 km, with 12 stages across Morocco, the Western Sahara, Mauritania and Senegal. The rally concluded on Sunday, Jan 19. Four days before the start of the rally, Ashish was in hospital after being down with dengue. But the rider in him took over and he started the rally against all medical advice but did a splendid job finishing with aplomb.

“It took me 31 hours to get back to the bivouac, and so I missed a couple of stages. The Africa Eco Race allows restarts and that’s a great thing. Of course I picked up a lot of penalties but at least I am not out of the race. So, eventually, I did get to the ride the famous Beach stage at the Lac Rose in Dakar and cross the finish line of the Africa Eco Race at P57,’’ said Ashish. The rally runs in the original route of Dakar when it was run in Africa.

“To say that the past weeks have been a roller coaster both physically and emotionally would be an understatement. I was in the hospital, four days before the race, wondering if I could make it to the start line and against all medical advice decided to go give it a shot,’’ he continued.

“Against all expectations, the race started out pretty well. Though, I was struggling physically after having spent 10 days in the hospital, going into the rest day, I had a good feeling on the bike,’’ he added. Ashish was ranked overall 17^th before the rest day.

Mauritania, is where it started unraveling for the Indian rider. The Indian and his team realised that the fuel consumption on the bike in the soft Mauritanian sand was pretty high and that the rally-modified Enduro bike did not have the required fuel autonomy unlike a full-fledged cross-country rally-raid bike. He was astride a KTM 450 EXC, a 4-stroke enduro off-road bike, which has its limitations during long-distance riding on terrain full of piste unlike a KTM 450 Rally Replica which will cost a whopping Rs.23 lakh or so.

The first stage in Mauritania confirmed this weakness. From there on, Ashish did manage his speed admirably to save the fuel. “On Stage 8 of the race, I made a navigation mistake early on going the wrong way, which further reduced my fuel autonomy. The stage was tough and, I was struggling through the dunes. At km 175 of the stage, the bike was buried in the dune. I was out of water and food, clutch issues crept up and I did not have enough fuel to reach the refueling point. I had to make one of the most-difficult decisions to call the PC course. Little did I know at the time that I would be spending the night in the dunes all alone but that is another long story, for another day,’’ the brave rider concluded.