As seen in The Forest Review: Join Vanessa, also known as ‘Girl On A Bike’, as she overcomes initial hurdles and triumphs in her quest to conquer the Qatar rally. From a bike that wouldn’t start to a leaking tank, follow her inspiring journey filled with determination, resilience, and a love for adventure. Get inspired and cheer her on as she tackles the dunes for a second pass at the rally.

Day 1

Monmouth-based racer “Girl On A Bike” started her journey in Qatar with an immediate set back. After the 3-4 week boat trip from the UK her bike wasn’t starting. Luckily this was only small set back as it was down to the battery not being reconnected properly after being disconnected, due to safety reasons, for the boat trip. Her trip continued to get worse as after finding a leak on the tank. However once again The Girl On A Bike was lucky enough that it could be easily sorted by changing a bolt.

She later chose her tyres for the race and decided on Michelin Desert Tyres as their hard exterior and easily glide through the sand as well as keep enough grip, hoping that this decision would make her the favourite out of the 52 racers. However, after a quick walk around she could see she wasn’t the only one to make this smart decision as the majority of the bikes had chosen the same or similar tyres. The Girl On A Bike later went to the prologue which started with a huge opening ceremony where Qatar welcomed all the racers from around the world. After meeting a few travelling fans, The Girl On A Bike made the 8km ride to end the prologue as well as the day.

After a rocky start with some mechanical issues the first day in Qatar the day ended well. With excitement and hope The Girl On A Bike can move forward to day two.

Day 2

With the second day underway Vanessa (The Girl On A Bike) got straight into getting her bike ready for the race however she couldn’t be too early or too late as she would receive a time penalty. Vanessa started well but 25k in she raced into a problem. The electrics kept fusing, luckily she found a quick fix and managed to keep racing until the fuel stop at 124k. After stopping at the final stop for the day Vanessa had time to take a look at her bike to find where the problems were. She found problems with the stella and road book. The stella was the reasoning for her fuse tripping and needing replacing. The road book also needed fixing as the bolts came loose and was it was becoming harder to read, luckily this stop only took around 5 minutes so Vanessa didn’t lose too much time. 

Day 3

Day 3 got underway and went quite well with no problems with the bike and a clean finish. Day 3 ended with Vanessa finishing in 28th out of the 55 riders. Vanessa did exceptionally well especially with the problems she faced and ended her trip with a well deserved relaxing trip to the beach.

For the rest of the Forest Review article 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, Tiktok and YouTube, and www.thegirlonabike.com.