2023-12-28 19:42:00
The Millavois driver will start the Dakar for the first time on January 5, with the prologue of the event, just like seven other Aveyron residents.
5,000 kilometers of special stages – 60% of which are new sections – 72 nationalities at the start, 12 stages, 14 days of racing, 778 competitors, 434 vehicles including 137 bikers… These are the staggering figures for the 2024 Dakar which will start on January 5 next in the city of Al-‘Ula in Saudi Arabia, home of the flagship event of the world rally-raid. If it makes most bipeds dizzy, this great classic of the discipline has an undeniable fascination among motorsport enthusiasts. On the starting line this year on the handlebars of his motorcycle, Millavois Vincent Biau is one of them.
With his bib 141, the 36-year-old will debut his first Dakar this year. Not without a dose of apprehension that the passion that drives him – often with a handlebar in his hands – erases very quickly.
Born into a family of restaurateurs – his father worked for a long time behind the bar at the Mirador, rue de la Capelle in Millau – Vincent wasted no time in swapping his bike for a motorbike. He was four years old.
Volunteer for ASO
“I don’t know why my father introduced me to motorcycles. He himself wasn’t a biker. He’s just got his license,” jokes the thirty-year-old. However, it was his father who took him to the Saint-Affrique motorcycle club, the stronghold of Richard Sainct, “the local idol we watched on television from the first day of the Dakar” who unfortunately died on September 29 ( 2004 in Egypt Editor’s note), Millavois’s birthday.
At 18 years old, with his license in hand, our young adventurer devotes his free time to traveling. With his BMW maxitrail, he takes on the slopes of Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania and Senegal alone. “I have also visited quite a few countries in Eastern Europe,” rewinds the man whose desire for elsewhere initially keeps him away from competition.
Before this thirst for victory finally won him over during his very first rally-raid. It’s 2012, Vincent Biau sets off on the Intercontinental Rally between Almeria and Dakar with a GS Adventure. “Piqued”, he will not stop, offering himself a race every year with in the back of his mind, his own Everest: the Dakar! A volunteer at the premier event for Amaury sport organization (ASO) for four editions, the Millavois driver is swapping his stopwatch this year for a 450 HP racing beast. “I always had that in mind but I was afraid to take the plunge, afraid of failing to raise the necessary budget, afraid of not finding the people who might accompany me on this adventure.”
“Motorcycle Gypsy”
It is now done, the Aveyronnais having initially managed to validate his participation thanks to his recent victory in the Abu Dhabi desert challenge in the trunk-motorcycle category (without assistance) and then to collect the 18,000 euros necessary for registration.
For the rest, he who considers himself a “motorcycle gypsy” will do as usual with his savings plan – which is seriously depleting over the course of his wanderings – his knowledge of navigation, the fees they earn from his Petokask flying school and a certain talent for the D system and resourcefulness. All the ingredients in short for a true Dakar driver in this unique category, who takes care of his own mechanics and faces the desert alone with an 80-liter trunk loaded to the brim.
“To summarize, it’s the category of drivers who have no sorrel,” laughs Biau, who nevertheless appreciates the respect that most of the other competitors feel towards this somewhat special caste. “They know that we’re not going to get a massage when we arrive (laughs) But when we call them for a breakdown, they’re there. It’s appreciable.”
This solidarity which is also the hallmark of the category without assistance. 30 drivers like Vincent Biau came to rub shoulders with this rally-raid monster in search of absolute asceticism, of “the very quintessence” of the discipline.
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