Toby Price Fixes Slashed Tire with Zip-Ties an Duct Tape, Still Finishes 2nd

Toby Price, you are a damn legend. Anyone who wins a Dakar Rally is truly worthy of such praise, but this year Price really earned the mantle.

After a rest day on Saturday, Sunday’s Stage 7 was always going to be a tough one, as it is what the Dakar Rally calls a “marathon” stage.

On top of the usual difficulty one finds racing in The Dakar, competitors are left at the end of the day to fix their own machines – their mechanics cannot help them.

For Toby Price, this meant fixing a slashed rear tire…except because of the regulations, the Australian couldn’t swap in a new Michelin (the motorcyclists only get six for the whole Dakar) or borrow one from a teammate.

So, the factory KTM rider did it the way any enterprising off-road racer would do it: with duct tape and zip-ties.

“I tried to fix the issue as much as I could,” explained Price. “By the time I got to refuel at 229km, I was down to one cable left on my rear tire, the rest had come off. I did my best to keep momentum, not accelerate hard and ride smart.”

For his efforts, the repair lasted the entirety of the 233 miles of Stage 8, and it miraculously allowed Price to finish Monday second on the stage, and thus second overall – just a minute behind leader Jose Ignacio Cornejo. Proper.