Red Bull Desert Wings: Marc Coma

Marc Coma’s aspirations have always focused on one race: the Dakar Rally. When he was a young boy, Marc collected the pictures of Dakar Rally riders to adorn his bedroom wall. By the tender age of eight, he was emulating them in his motocross endeavours, before moving into the punishing arena of Enduro competition.

His success was brisk. Marc became Spanish Junior Champion in 1995, World Champion in the under-23 category in 1998, third in the Spanish championship in 2000, and second in 2001. These achievements were proof alone that he was talented enough to mix it with the big boys.

His first chance arrived in 2002 when Marc entered his first Dakar as a privateer. His performance led him to be picked up by the KTM works team for the following year’s event. Then in 2005, Marc came tantalisingly close to realising a life-long dream by finishing a blistering second place in the Dakar Rally.

However, 2006 was truly to be his year as a lifetime’s work and ambition culminated in a Dakar win. Marc did not rest on his laurels and he repeated the feat in 2009, this time taking the win in the first Dakar to be run outside of Africa.

Marc won again in 2011 and finished second in 2012, however he was forced to withdraw from the Dakar in 2013 following an injury he sustained during the Rally of Morocco. In spite of this, he came back in stellar fashion to take overall third place at the Rally Dos Sertões in Brazil, proving that he is still one of the finest riders in his class. Marc has since taken yet another Dakar Rally win and became the 2014 FIM World Cross Countries Rally Champion, proving that he’s truly back on top form once again. Cyril Despres no longer participates in the bike category so… who will be able to beat Coma?