Dakar 2023: Benavides, a methodical driver who won in flowing

“Lift the cup like Argentina did? That’s the idea”said Kevin Benavides when he attended MD on Saturday, a day before the great final battle against Toby Price Y Skyler Howes for achieving victory in the Dakar on motorcycles. The Argentine is tense, nervous, thinking. A day later, he reached the finish line relieved, knowing he had made all the Argentines jump for joy again. And he did it with a message for the idol of all albiceleste fans.

“I want to send a greeting to Leo Messi, to the entire Argentine team, how good… I was able to beat Saudi Arabia,” he said with a laugh, referring to the past World Cup. Kevin won the game in the deserts of Arabia and all his rivals after arriving in Dakar full of motivation for the success achieved by Messi and the company. a few days before. “I think his victory had a lot to do with it, I was very motivated by what the National Team did, that challenge, and I always fight for my flag. Today I left the flag of Argentina again at the top of motorcycling in the world”, he highlighted.

He bet on KTM to win them

“He was at Honda and he made sacrifices. He left Honda when he won (after winning the 2021 Dakar) and came to us when we were rebuilding our project to try to win again. We owe him quite a bit for what he did.”taught MD Jordi Viladoms, KTM sports director, about Kevin (January 9, 1989, Salta, Argentina) about a subject that makes this achievement special.

This is more so because of how his title defense ended last year. In 2022, in his first KTM course, he broke his engine when on stage 10 he was fighting with the best. “Suddenly he stopped and couldn’t help but cry”he said at that time. A year later, he told MD that he had recovered from that “train harder to get better and better prepared”. And it is if one thing defines Kevin it is his precise method.

Kevin and Toby, two polar opposites

Get a custom preparation. Viladoms said, He was a completely opposite pilot to the one he now rivals, Toby Price.

“Toby is the pilot who trains the least, but has the most talent. And he has a personality that makes everything look easy. You won’t see him in the gym. not training, He only rides the motorcycle and gives fuel, but he doesn’t do it every day either. He lives a happy life and occasionally rides a bike when he wants to and gives gas. We try to do a lot of tests for him to ride the bike, because at home we don’t know what he does. Whereas Kevin is the opposite: he is methodical, he has a psychologist, a physical trainer, a motorcycle trainer, he trains twice a day, he is like a bull… Kevin’s option is the one that usually works. And once in a few million, a Toby comes out that doesn’t need it,” he told MD.

He didn’t think. Speed ​​up

Exactly, one day before the big fight, MD asked Kevin about the obvious difference in doing things between the two contenders for the crown.

“I have my psychologist, Gustavo Ruiz, we work a lot and obviously it is very important to be mentally, strong and physically fit, they are all things combined”he commented. “I think if Toby trained maybe he wouldn’t do well. He has his philosophy, his form and that’s also what makes him strong. He’s Australian and he doesn’t care about those things. He’s not worried about it and he has a strong minded. I think that mentality is his forte. He is a pilot with many years of experience, he won two Dakars and what I like most about him is his mental strength in the sense that nothing is too much for him. That is very positive. I received it differently. another job”he declared, more tense and thoughtful than when Toby attended the press at the KTM tent.

Amazingly, after calling his psychologist and his family, and thinking about the thousands of scenarios that could happen the next day, when the moment of truth came, he chose to flow. “In the end my mind went blank and I said: ‘I have to go out and drive and do my best. I pushed to the max”. Like Messi, he put the ball in the corner just as everyone was hiding. Without thinking. He just did. Kevin won the champion.