Dirt Hub: Vanessa Ruck is the first female to complete the Tunisia Desert Challenge!
As seen on the Dirt Hub: Vanessa Ruck, also known as The Girl on a Bike, has been the first woman to ever enter into the Tunisia Desert Challenge, an extreme rally raid over sand dunes and in blistering temperatures. The 35-year-old UK competitor went on to complete the gruelling 8 day endurance event, covering up to 469km each day and won the ladies class.
But it wasn’t all sunshine! She endured sandstorms with up to 85km/hr winds which meant that the race had to be paused, she had bike issues leading to a night in the dunes, and another mechanical failure ending with the rescue helicopter being sent out. Many riders were waiting for hours, some drivers even multiple days in direct sunshine with limited water following issues in the brutal conditions.
Despite being on a motorcycle, only able to take what you can carry, competitors are required to carry various safety items such as flares and emergency blankets. For many these proved to be lifelines.
The 3rd stage, through the El Borma dunes, was described by a 10 times Dakar finisher as ‘the hardest day riding of their life’. As one of the many competitors to be recovered Vanessa faced an electrical fault ending her day miles from anywhere. She was the furthest bike of 16 to be recovered, just 6km from the end of 45 kilometres of dunes that day but in those conditions a mere 500 meters is a gruelling slog. She made a campfire and waited for help to arrive. After an exciting rescue in the dark of the night Vanessa made it back to the bivouac at 3.30am, grabbing just 2.5 hours sleep while her Desert Rose Racing mechanic team frantically got her rally bike ‘Sandy’ back to life. Sleepy eyed, it was time for another day of racing.
During the 4th stage, the bad luck continued as Vanessa’s bike malfunctioned at 10.30 AM so she was stranded, again. Miles from anywhere, deep in the dunes the temperatures peaked at 45 degrees. At these temperatures, the body starts to shut down and even with water, severe dehydration and heat exhaustion is just a matter of time. She survived the desert heat by taking water from other vehicles entered into a different class and by mid-afternoon used her bike as some protection from the sun’s deadly rays.
Vanessa said, ‘I had water as thankfully passing cars, trucks and buggies gave me some, but by 5pm I was bad. I called for an emergency evacuation and when they saw me, they were clearly scared. I was terrified. I had been trying not to breathe in the hot sand but it felt like my head was going to explode. I was delirious and was put on a drip. One competitor sadly died due to the heat as they didn’t activate emergency support from the organisers, I’m glad I found the strength to hit the button’.
For the rest of the Dirt Hub Post article on the Tunisia Desert Challenge see here.
If you’re new to my page – it’s more than just dirt bike riding, Harleys and racing, I’m on a mission to prove that nothing is impossible if you want it bad enough. See more about my story plus read about my life changing accident, which started it all.
You can find me Vanessa, The Girl On A Bike over on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, and www.thegirlonabike.com.