KIWI RIDER 03 2019 VOL.2 | Page 65

Photo: Marcelo Maragni won everything worth winning in Australia and everyone knows you here, and you’re the 2018 FIM World Rally champion, but winning Dakar twice puts you in some pretty rare air. How do you deal with that? TP: Look, it’s cool to win these races, especially Dakar. It is the ultimate off-road race in the whole world. Everyone wants to win that race and that’s the one to win. But I don’t see myself as anyone special – anyone walking past here is no different to me. I just race a motorcycle and get to do a job that I love to do. It doesn’t make me any different. It’s good to have those two races to my name, but I’ll never get a big head about it. BM: You’ve had some terrible personal KIWI RIDER 65