Photo: Marcelo Maragni
tragedies in your life, as well as huge
injuries to overcome. You’ve not only
overcome, you’ve triumphed. What advice
could you give people who are facing
similar challenges?
TP: The thing is never give up. The world
is not an easy place and it doesn’t want to
give you an easy ride. The stairway to the
top of the hill is not straight. There’s a lot
of zig-zags and a lot of U-turns. Play the
hand you’re dealt. Try and take something
positive out of it and keep charging on.
The mind is the strongest part of your
body. If you set your mind to something
and you want it bad enough, it may not
happen straight away, but you keep trying.
BM: Does Toby have a motorcycle hero?
TP: Actually, yeah. Growing up what kicked
it off for me was Mick Doohan. I really
He was cheerful and unassuming,
signing autographs and posing for
selfies with literally hundreds of
fans of all ages
wanted to fill his shoes. But there’s a whole
heap of me and I would have filled a lot of
his shoes, and his leathers as well. They
would have had to put two of his leathers
together to fit me into them. My dreams of
that vanished pretty quickly once I started
growing too tall and too heavy. These
days there are so many gods. Stéphane
Peterhansel has like six Dakar bike wins
and seven in a car – he’s not human.