Rally Raid
Hear what this Dakar Rally bike rookie has to say
Brad Cox is halfway through his first Dakar Rally, with a super consistent performance so far. We caught up with him before the race to get some insights.
Bradley Cox is the son of legendary Dakar racer Alfie Cox, but Brad has always forget his own path. He's dominated across various two-wheeled disciplines from an early age, winning various age group and riding class championships. At 23 years old, he is a 9-time South African motorsports champion, with a wealth of experience racing throughout Southern Africa, Europe and the USA. Now he is currently tackling the biggest challenge of his career - the Dakar Rally.
With more than 1000 people lining up to race nearly 7 500km across Saudi Arabian deserts, the 2022 Dakar Rally is an epic rally-raid adventure over the sand dunes. Here are some of Brad's thoughts:
ON THE COX LEGACY
With it being my first Dakar, there's a lot of pressure on me, in terms of my surname, but I’m lucky in that my whole life I’ve had to deal with this kind of pressure. It's been really nice that my mom and dad could sit me down and say: 'Your entire career so far you've done what you've had to do, you never had to follow in your dad’s footsteps and you've been making a way for yourself.' The Dakar Rally is a little bit different because I’m literally doing what he made his name Internationally.
ON HIS GOALS
There's no pressure from my parents and they have just given me the tools to do what I want to do. With this being my first Dakar, it's all about learning. I’m not going there to win or even think about a place. I’m going there to finish and see how I do and try to make a career out of rally racing, that's where I’m heading.
ON THE ADVICE HIS PARENTS GAVE HIM
I think the biggest thing from my mom and dad, is to not get caught in the hype of the surname and not let that pressure get to me and every day ride for myself and do my own thing.
The next thing I learnt from my dad was when you have a good day, you can't get caught up the next day and crash, or make mistakes. 'Don't ride over your head because you had a good day, the day before,' my dad say. You need to pace yourself and need to learn by being patient. The same for when you have a bad day, you need to turn that around and make it a positive day, you can’t run yourself down the next day because of a bad day.
Thirdly, I’m extremely lucky to have Ross Branch in my corner as a mentor. And then my dad with the old school knowledge and experience - you know he’s been there, done that and got the proverbial tee-shirt. That, combined with Ross who's currently in it and I'm literally in the same position he was in before he got his factory ride. Ross is teaching me the new-school tricks and my dad the old school. I think the biggest thing from Ross is: 'Don't get caught up in the moment. He’s taught me that I've got the speed and I have to put it together with the navigation and I'm really lucky in that we've done so much navigation training together. He’s helped me with little tricks, The things to do in the river beds, when you are looking for a tricky check point and the double notes to be aware of.
IT'S NOT ENDURO
The Dakar Rally is completely different to what I am used to. The race is two weeks long, it's not 'just' day, it's not 3 hours, it's not a 30-min motocross moto so, just on the day, build on the day... I need to limit my mistakes, my time loss and at the end of the day bring myself and the bike to the finish. The ultimate is to finish the rally.
FUEL THE BIKE AND YOURSELF
Nutrition is crucial. I make sure I have a good breakfast. We eat in the morning at 4am, we go do a 200-300km liaison, then start the day and have a small snack before the start of the race and then you carry on until the next refuel where you have a gel or a bar. So managing my nutrition, my body and making sure I have enough fluids in me throughout the day. I make sure I’m not depleting myself, because it will catch up on me the following day.