Dakar 2009

Dakar 2009 should have been a great event for me. I was in the best physical condition of my life; I had a great Team Mate in Steve Laroza good mechanics Gary Smith and Bret Leef. I had my own Team including team manager Des Mcdonald (who has since passed on) and Miro Nezdoba as support. I was having a great ride and moving very quickly up the standings; unfortunately I became over confident and made a terrible error while trying to gap my team mates. I missed a huge jump marked on the road book and hit it at 140 km an hour.

The resulting crash ended my ride and nearly ended my life. I was unconscious on the course for almost two hours, were it not for the efforts of two Irish riders Gary Ennis and Philip Noone I would have died. I was evacuated by helicopter and plane to a hospital where I spent 7 days in intensive care.