Organizers of the Dakar Rally awarded Russian racer Anastasiya Nifontova with a medal for the second position among women in a category.
The first Russian woman racer at Dakar told TASS on Jan. 15 about tremendous physical exertion racers experience.
"Very many participants had to be out of the race, including due to bad physical conditions," she said. "Thus, apparently, I have a certain feeling of pride I could endure and come to the finish, and even to be the second among women."
The Russian racer took the overall 75th position among motorcycle racers.
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She said, the most complicated was the rally’s tenth stage – in Argentina."The navigation and the route were complicated," she continued. "Usually, there are passages, where you can sit on a bike and just go, relaxing a bit, and here due to very big technical passages it was impossible to sit down even for a second."
The racer also spoke about success of the team member Alexander Ivanutin, who took the 32nd position.
"Quite a big share of racers, participating in Dakar, does not make it to the finish, thus the fact we have come to the finish line is already an achievement," she said. "Sasha (Alexander) also showed very good result, as ahead of him were only factory racers, who have both skills and experience."
The racers now realize how to get prepared for next starts, though as yet they do not know for sure whether they will participate in the Dakar race in 2018.
"Now we have the understanding how to get prepared, what to do," she explained. "When you participate for the first time, you know things only from rumors and so forth. Now that we have the experience, everything is more or less clear to us."
The Dakar rally was staged this year in Paraguay, Argentina and Bolivia and ended on January 14 in Buenos Aires. Nine women participated in the competition - three of them on motorcycles.
Source: Tass
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