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A photo of Carlos Sainz training
© Jaime De Diego / Red Bull Content Pool
Rally Raid
Why Carlos Sainz is as strong as a bull heading into the Dakar Rally
The 57-year-old two-time Dakar winner is crushing the final stages of his training regime for the world’s toughest rally – and he’s fitter than ever.
เขียนโดย Pablo Bueno
4 min readPublished on
It’s difficult to list all the challenges Carlos Sainz has faced throughout a hugely successful career spanning four decades. It’s a whole lot easier explaining how the Spaniard has always prepared for any challenges, approaching everything in a thorough way.
This formula has made it possible to reach heights never seen by any other Spanish rally driver, including his two world rally titles and as many Dakar titles. Now, the man from Madrid has been working hard for what will be his 11th attempt at the world's toughest rally.
“Those of us who like sports never stop training,” Sainz explains. “But I started to train harder since September, to have a more specific and methodical programme that, depending on the day, alternates working with weights, aerobics and series, all to improve both strength and resistance, because we spend many hours behind the wheel.”
Taking on the Dakar is never easy, but things look even tougher for Sainz and his fellow competitors in 2020, with Saudi Arabia throwing up longer stages and different conditions to those in South America.
“For this Dakar, we’re going to spend many hours in the car, with several stages over 500 kilometres, without altitude, but with heat,” Sainz adds. “So, based on all that, we've defined the type of training. We don't want to gain muscle volume, because it doesn't make much sense, but rather endurance and strength for what awaits us.”
An image of Carlos Sainz in the gym.
Sainz is in incredible shape© Jaime De Diego / Red Bull Content Pool
“We train for those long days in the car with specific work on the parts of the body that can suffer most, such as the neck, the shoulders and the abdominal and lumbar areas. When you sit for so long and with the blows that you receive inside the car during jumps and dunes, your lumbar area and your neck suffer. Also, I have some problems in both areas, so we need to strengthen those muscles.”
Sainz is using planks and other specific exercises to help reinforce his abdomen and lumbar area, while focussing on a technique well-known to all drivers when it comes to strengthening the neck: working with elastic bands and weights around the head.
If strength is the antidote to the wear and tear a Dakar car subjects its passengers to, resistance is the antidote to the natural tendency to slow down when fatigue increases. “It's about keeping up the pace, the speed, throughout the stage, so physically you have to keep up. Riding a bicycle for more than two hours helps me do that,” Sainz adds.
How the Dakar plays tricks on your mind
Sainz explains one of the factors that makes the Dakar unique:
“In this rally, you drive only with the information of a few notes you receive from the co-driver, along with what you see. You have to make decisions with the little information that your brain can judge and that sometimes tricks you and leads you to make mistakes; to be too optimistic because you think the terrain is one way and it ends up being different. All this uncertainty produces a lot of stress, a lot of tension and causes adrenaline to shoot up, which affects you physically.”
Sainz's long sporting career has also allowed him to witness first-hand how physical preparation has evolved in motorsports. “When Luis [Moya] and I arrived at the World Rally Championship there was no such preparation at all,” he says. “But the moment someone raises the bar, everyone else is obliged to follow suit.”
For his latest challenge, Sainz is committed to the same goal he’s strived for throughout his sporting career: victory. “On January 17 I will be happy if I win, of course, but sometimes you don't have to win to be happy. If I've enjoyed myself, if I've given my best and if I'm calm with myself, I'll still be happy.”
And on the way to his 13th Dakar, Sainz isn’t losing perspective on everything he has achieved so far, concluding: “I'm proud to have the chance to keep on competing and to be the oldest driver to win this event. I don't have too much time to go on, but I think I've earned the right to be here and enjoy myself until I decide to stop.”
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Carlos Sainz

Known as 'El Matador', veteran driver Carlos Sainz is a WRC winner and now four-time Dakar Rally champion, making him Spain's greatest ever off-road racer.

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