Daniel Sanders went to a fundraiser event in Austria where the hotel was in the Alps and it was insane. Here' what he got up to in June.
Hey everyone, it’s Daniel Sanders here, been another month jet setting around the world. After the Argentina race we had to make the call to not race Hattah, and instead we shot over to Spain for a quick test. We had to try and find some direction to make the bike better with some new improved hardware which the team had been working on since Dakar this year.
Straight away we have gained a massive advantage with traction from what they changed in the frame and engine so that was super positive and exciting. We then started to change suspension settings and I’m super lucky now to have Gilesy from choice suspension over here now working alongside our other WP technicians. It was good to throw him in the deep end and introduce him to a brand-new bike which he had never worked with before. We could convert over an old fork setting from another bike which helped but the shock action is completely different so we have to focus there right now.
This was just a basic roll out in Spain before our big test in August which will be set up in the desert and we will use this direction for Dakar and Morocco. After that test in Spain I flew to Austria for a week to visit the Red Bull athlete performance centre to check my femur and my strength. All around the progress is super positive. It was just super important to find the areas where I need to be better and focus on those exercises.
Whilst in Austria I was staying at my buddy Matthias Walkner’s house as we haven’t caught up since his accident since December last year where he missed a drop in the desert and smashed his whole leg up. He is doing really well and isn’t too far away from putting full weight onto the leg. He thinks the crutches are finished in two months which I think is super nice.
The weather in Austria was perfect so we just hung by the pool at the house and cooked BBQ’s, it was really good to train and just kick back and take life in for a bit. We went to a fundraiser event in Austria where the hotel was in the Alps and it was insane. The fundraiser was filled with influencers and large company’s CEO’s and Alexander Zverev the tennis player. There was lots of talking and trying to explain to people what I do, racing in the desert.
After that fun I flew home and shook the jet lag off and got stuck into my shed work starting to pull the desert bikes apart and get them ready for motocross and enduro riding again. I’m also starting to service the farm’s dozer as I’ve been slapping some hours on the big girl. I’m doing some experimenting of how well I can pull something apart, fix it and put it back together again and so far so good. The next test for me will be in the middle of August but I think I’ll head out in the Aussie desert and try and work on some magic with Gilesy. Daniel Sanders.
