Taye Perry. After 10 days of competing in her very first Dakar Rally - having completed a total of 6 666 kilometres - of which she's raced 4 263kms - and with only 2 days and 1 173 kilometres to go to the finish - AND having just stepped into the Top 50 in the Motorcycle Category (there are still 100 bikers competing) - AND lying third in the Ladies Bikes Category - AND being in the Top 10 in the Rookies Category - AND getting to the halfway mark of the Marathon Stage where she had to work on her own bike with only the tools and parts that she has carried (raced with) the whole day for 600 kilometres - DISASTER as Taye Perry apparently fell at 206km (they had to complete a total of 744kms for the day) and could not get her bike going again... This little lady (she is only 1.58m short) then spent hours in the desert (this section of the desert is called the Empty Quarter, a vast expanse almost as big as France, boasts long, unbroken successions of dunes) trying to fix her bike. Just imagine - all the bikes, cars and trucks passing her... with only so much to eat and drink... a girl working on her bike in the desert...and it is getting dark... Eventually a car team, vehicle #389 with Spaniard Pablo Martinez and the Argentine, Facundo Jaton, came to her rescue and towed her for hundreds of kilometres (it is not easy being towed by a car...). They towed her for the rest of the distance through the desert and to where they are allowed to do so from where she then pushed her bike to the finish and to her team... After 18 hours - that is a day and a half! - on her bike and trying to fix it or being towed on it - she was 'home' and she had only 2 hours to 'rest' in her little tent (and for the mechanics to fix her bike) before lining up for the last day of her Dakar Rally... And she has made it today. Taye finished the 2020 Dakar Rally in 77th place in the Motorcycle Category (there were 93 finishers this year from 144 that started).
