Surviving Against the Odds: Joey Evans' Journey from Paralysis to Dakar

In this episode of The Business of Endurance, we dive into one of the most inspiring stories you'll ever hear. Our guest, Joey Evans, turned the darkest moment of his life—an accident that left him paralyzed—into an awe-inspiring journey of resilience and triumph. For ten years, Joey pursued an impossible dream: to compete in the world’s toughest off-road race, the Dakar Rally. Against all odds, he not only regained the ability to walk but crossed the finish line of the brutal 9,000km Dakar, dragging his battered bike through unimaginable adversity. In this conversation, Joey reveals the mindset and strategies that kept him going when everything seemed lost. You'll discover how goal setting, resilience, and sheer determination can overcome even the most insurmountable challenges. Whether you're an athlete, entrepreneur, or simply someone navigating life's hurdles, Joey’s insights will leave you with practical takeaways to redefine your limits, overcome setbacks, and chase your own dreams with renewed vigor.

Highlights:
- Joey's Introduction to Motorbike Racing
- Understanding the Dakar Rally
- The Dangers of Motorbike Racing
- A Life-Changing Crash in 2007
- The Road to Recovery
- Facing the Brutal 2017 Dakar Rally
- Surviving the Andes and Harsh Weather
- A Devastating Crash and Unyielding Determination
- The Final Push and Unbelievable Triumph
- Reflections on Resilience and Overcoming Adversity
- The Impact of the Accident and Life Lessons
- Technological Advances in Racing and Future Challenges

Links:
Connect with Joey Evans on Instagram & Web.

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Episode Transcript

Joey Evans (00:04):
This is one of the hardest things.
I would dream like I was stillable-bodied.
So I would dream I was runningor I was riding or I was doing
something like that, and thenI'd wake up and then I'm
paralyzed.

Charlie Reading (00:18):
In this episode of the Business of Endurance
podcast, we dive into one of themost inspiring stories you'll
ever hear.
Our guest, joey Evans, turnedthe darkest moment of his life,
an accident that left himparalyzed and unable to ever
walk again, into anawe-inspiring journey of
resilience and triumph.
For 10 years, joey pursues animpossible dream to complete the

(00:41):
world's toughest off-road race,the Dakar Rally.
Against all odds, he not onlyregained his ability to walk,
but crossed the finish line ofthe brutal 9,000 kilometer Dakar
Rally, dragging his batteredbike through unimaginable
adversity.
Now you may be thinking he'sriding a motorbike.
How is this an endurance sport?

(01:02):
Well, you've just got to listento the conversation to really
understand that this isdefinitely an endurance sport.
In this conversation, joeyreveals the mindset and
strategies that kept him goingwhen everything seemed lost.
Discover how goal setting,resilience and sheer
determination can overcome eventhe most insurmountable
challenges.
Whether you're an athlete,entrepreneur or simply somebody

(01:25):
navigating life's hurdles,joey's insights will leave you
with practical takeaways toredefine your limits, overcome
setbacks and chase your owndreams with renewed vigor.
You are going to get so muchout of this amazing conversation
with Joey Evans.
So, joey, welcome to theBusiness of Endurance podcast.

(01:56):
I've been listening to youtelling stories and speaking,
and I know this is going to bean awesome episode.
I grew up on a farm and mygrandmother bought me a 50cc
Pooch Magnum motorbike when Iwas seven years old and, having
grown up around horses and whereyou had to mop the horses out,
and then suddenly this thingjust started when he wanted it
to and it didn't eat while heslept.

(02:18):
I loved motorbikes, so when Iheard about your story, I was
like this is going to beabsolutely brilliant.
We've never had a motorcycliston the podcast before.
What I'd love to know is howdid you get into motorbike
racing and what was so importantabout the Dakar Rally?

Joey Evans (02:33):
I was one of these guys who didn't grow up on
motorcycles.
You often hear a lot of guyswho race.
They grew up on motorcycles.
I liked motorcycles as a kidbut I grew up one of six
children and we didn't have alot of money and that kind of
stuff, so motorbikes was neveran option.
But I had a BMX bicycle growingup and I loved that BMX bicycle
and the places that took me andbuilding ramps in the bush,

(02:54):
felt with my brothers and things.
But it took me until I was 26years old and I was actually
working and saving money and Ibought my first secondhand
motorcycle when I was 26.
And then I started withmotocross, which is on the
tracks with the big jumps andthat kind of stuff.
And then I moved into I did abit of freestyle motocross for a
while, which is you see thoseones with the metal ramps and

(03:14):
the tricks and that kind ofstuff.
And then I got into enduro andoff-road and that's where you
race like cross country throughrivers and forests and that type
of stuff.
And I heard this word, theDakar Rally here and there,
growing up and seeing someimages now and again, and it was
only really in my 20s that Ilearned a lot more about the
race, and so to give you a bitof background, what the Dakar is

(03:36):
it's considered the toughest,most grueling off-road race in
the world and it's generallyabout two weeks long and you
race around about 9,000kilometers.
It started off racing from Paristo Dakar in Senegal, so all
through North Africa, the Saharadesert and that kind of stuff,
but over the years the first onewas in 1968.

(04:00):
And so it's been going for anumber of years.
And then they faced a lot ofchallenges in the early 2000s
with political instability andreligious fundamentalism and
this kind of stuff, and the racestarted to get targeted by
terrorists and things and theyended up having to move it.
So the route changed every yearup in North Africa.
But then they did the biggestmove in in 2008, where they

(04:22):
moved the entire race to SouthAmerica, and so for the next 11
years we'd run through countrieslike Chile, peru, bolivia,
argentina, paraguay, through theAndes Mountains and the Atacama
Desert, and then for the last Ithink about four or five years
now it's been held in SaudiArabia.
So it's moved every year.
It's never been the same routesall the way through, right from

(04:43):
the beginning.
It's always been differentcountries, each year, different
places, but it's the concept ofthis two-week ultimate off-road
race.
It's considered an extremelydangerous race.
There's been over 75 deathsover its 40-something year
period.
You often have deaths on therace and often those deaths are

(05:03):
motorcyclists.

Charlie Reading (05:04):
Is it just because you're more exposed, or
is it because of the otherthings that you're racing?

Joey Evans (05:08):
It's a bit of both.
So when you're on a motorcycleyou are exposed to the elements.
If you crash, it's your bodyhitting the ground.
When you're in a car or a truck, you've got roll cages and
you've got eight-point safetyharnesses and hunts devices
connecting your head to the backof the seats and all that sort
of stuff.
It is a lot safer to drive inthose kinds of vehicles.
So for bikers, you are the mostat risk because you're the most

(05:31):
exposed to environments.
But also for bikers, racingwith cars and trucks is
particularly dangerous.
Normally, if you look at anysort of racing around the world
in the different countries,motorcycles won't race with cars
and trucks.
Yeah, it's always separateevents, but there's a few races
around the world where you dorace with these cars and trucks
and quads and that kind of stuffside by sides, and one of

(05:53):
obviously the biggest race thatdoes that is the Dakar Rally, as
well as like the Baja 1000 andthen a few other rallies around
the world.
You race with the vehicles aswell, and that's a massive
challenge because you have allvehicles of different speeds.
So sometimes cars and trucksneed to overtake bikers, which
is normally the situation,because with most of these races
they let the bikers go firstand then they send the cars and

(06:15):
trucks afterwards for a bit oftime, but inevitably they'll
catch the majority of the field.
So that is the most dangeroussituation, when cars and trucks
need to overtake bikes because,as a biker, a lot of guys want
to.
You want to lose as little timeas possible, you don't want to
pull over out the way you knowand wait for several minutes for
this guy to go past, causethere's so many cars and trucks.

(06:37):
If you just keep doing that,you'll never finish the race.
And for a car or truck, he wantsto get past you without letting
off that gas at all.
He's a guy racing.
I mean, sometimes it's a50-year-old Dutch guy in a truck
, but he's like a teenager onRed Bull.
He's just racing flat out andtrying to get to that finish
line.
So they don't have a lot ofpatience, a lot of the guys and
so it is a dangerous situation.

(06:58):
They have things put in placewith alarms and stuff, but it's
all like in theory.
This is how it'll work, whereasout there in the desert or on
the dirt tracks, the reality isvery different to what you'd
hear in riders briefing.

Charlie Reading (07:10):
It sounds insane, and Claire and I have a
habit of listening to theseamazing events.
Going sign me up for this.
I'm not sure that either of usare sitting here at the moment
thinking we signed up for theDakar Rally but long before you
got to race the Dakar Rally forthe Dakar Rally, but long before
you got to race the Dakar Rally.
You had a life-changing day in,I think, 2007, wasn't it?
So tell us about what happenedthere and the aftermath of the

(07:33):
crash that you had.

Joey Evans (07:34):
Sure, yeah.
So it was the 13th of October2007.
And heading into that, I wasracing off-road bikes in South
Africa.
I was doing pretty good on alocal and a regional level.
I was nowhere in placenationally, but I was doing
pretty good on a local and aregional level.
I was nowhere placed nationally, but I was doing all right to
all the local races and stuff.
And I had this goal to one dayrace the Dakar Rally.
It was certainly nothing thatwas like anytime soon.

(07:55):
You know, I got married quiteyoung.
I had four young daughters, andso it was like lots of
financial things and all sortsof stuff, but I was like no, one
day, one day I'm going to dothat race.
And I lined up at the start ofthis local race on a Saturday
morning with a whole bunch ofguys in the same class as me and
I was lying second in thechampionship at the time.

(08:15):
It was the second last race ofthe season and if I won that
race I could still win thischampionship.
And looking back, it wasridiculous.
At that time, on that startline, winning that championship
just seemed like the mostimportant thing in my life and
my goal was to get in that firstcorner in as close to first
place as I could, because thestarts really matter a lot,

(08:36):
because with off-road racing thefurther back you get, the more
dust, and so the field justspreads out really quickly and
the further back you are youjust lose time like crazy.
So that first corner is superimportant and that flag dropped
for the start and I raced acrossthat field and we got to that
first kind of bottleneck whereit tightened in and then made a
hard right and in thatbottleneck I got in there in the

(08:57):
first couple of places.
I had a great start, but therewas a guy behind me who was
coming in too hot and he justcrashed straight into kind of
the back end of my bike and weboth went down really hard and
in the dust and mayhem.
A lot of riders went over me aswell and I was unconscious.
I'd obviously had a big impacton my head and I lay there

(09:17):
unconscious for several minutesand then, when I came around,
the first thing I realized is mymouth was full of dirt and
stones and I started spitting itout.
But it turned out not to bedirt and stones, it was my teeth
, and I'd shattered 12 of myteeth just right down into the
gums.
But the next thing I noticed mylegs were bent and they were
leaning against a friend of minewho was there and as he stepped
back, my legs just fell to theground.

(09:38):
And I just said to the medics.
I said I can't feel my legs,and then there was a lot of
complications.
That day I ended up lying therein the dirt for several hours
and then I was transported byroad to three different
hospitals over the next 48 hours, and then I learned the extent
of my injuries and what I'd doneis I'd broken my back, my T8
and T9 vertebra, I'd crushed myspinal cord and I was paralyzed

(10:02):
from the chest down.

Claire Fudge (10:04):
To listen to that story of you being injured is
unthinkable really.
As a dietician actually havingworked with spinal cord injuries
, I can only imagine what youmight have been going through.
And speaking with people who'vehad spinal cord injuries, that
diagnosis is just a terriblediagnosis.
How did you approach thosefirst few days after that injury
Because that is huge to be toldthat those first few days after

(10:24):
that injury Because that ishuge to be told that what was
your mindset at that time?
What were you thinking Like?
How were you getting throughevery day?

Joey Evans (10:32):
So at first the doctors said to me that you're
paralyzed and this is likely howit's going to be the rest of
your life.
And to be honest, at first Ijust didn't believe it.
I guess, as, like a biker andthings, my understanding was
that if you broke a bone itmeant you can't race for six
weeks.
That was like the extent ofthis understanding.
And so to be told it would beforever, I was like there's no

(10:53):
ways, it can't be forever.
And so at first I was like no,there's no ways.
You know, I didn't reallyunderstand what a spinal cord
injury was.
I'd heard words like paraplegicand quadriplegic and I'd seen
people in wheelchairs, but youdon't really know these things
unless it happens to you orsomeone close to you.
And so at first, no, it'll befine, it'll be fine.
And then the days started totick away and I've got no

(11:15):
feeling, no movement below mychest and my legs start getting
skinnier and skinnier as themuscles atrophied.
And then suddenly this realityof my situation started to just
settle and kind of dawn on meand it was like whoa, and I'm
realizing like man, I've messedup here.
I've messed up in a big way.
I'm a father of four daughters,I'm the breadwinner in the

(11:36):
family, I've got all this sortof responsibility and here I am
like paralyzed in this hospitaland the rest of my life is
ruined and I've destroyedeverything.
And it was man, it was heavy,and then you're kind of in this
place where it's just every dayis a massive struggle, not just
to keep it together physicallybut keep it together mentally as
well.
It was the first time in mylife I'd been in a place where I

(11:57):
looked at the rest of my lifeand I was like, is this worth it
?
Man, this is, I don't know if Ican do this.
This is a big ask.
This, you know, it was toughtimes and I think the strategy
that I used at that time wasthat I had to not think about
everything.
I had to not think about therest of my life, I had to not
think about all the areas ofsweet effect.
It was just like that ton ofpressure trying to think of all

(12:18):
those things.
So I would just take it one dayat a time and I'd say, right,
just today, what am I going todo today?
To do the best I can today tojust move that little needle,
just to take it over just totime a little bit.
What can I do today?
And the answer generally was tolike be positive today, wake up
, go to your physio.
When I started then it waspurely upper body stuff, just
trying to keep healthy, justmake sure I'm eating right today

(12:40):
, just making sure I'm doingeverything I can today to just
get through today.
And sometimes it wasn't even awhole day.
Sometimes I'm breaking it upinto hours to minutes,
especially the nighttimes alonelying in that bed.
This was one of the hardestthings.
I would dream like I was stillable-bodied so I would dream I
was running or I was riding or Iwas doing something like that,

(13:01):
and then I'd wake up and thenI'm paralyzed and so the person
I was in my head didn't matchthis body that I was in.
And that was one of the mostdifficult things.
It was like a.
It felt like a big dollop ofdepression every single morning
when you woke up and becausethey give you quite a lot of
painkillers and stuff, so you'repretty out of it, I guess, a
lot of the time, and so yousleep and you dream and you wake

(13:22):
up and it's reality and it was.
Yeah, it was super tough, butbreaking it up to those little
bite-sized pieces was what kindof hacked me through those
darkest times.

Claire Fudge (13:31):
I can see how, like making those mini
day-to-day targets orhour-to-hour targets, are just
so important to get you throughday-to-day.
When did you realize that theparalysis that you had, when did
you realize that was incompletein terms of a spinal injury and
that there was a possibility ofpotentially getting back some
sort of function, some sort ofmovement?

(13:52):
So when did that really changefor you?

Joey Evans (13:54):
We were several weeks in and the one day I could
, if I really like, focused, Icould make my big toe on my
right foot just twitch just alittle bit, and it was.
It was obviously like, is thatme?
Because you get a lot of spasmsand that kind of stuff, and it
would just twitch just a littlebit.
And then the doctors, they sawit and they and we, they said,

(14:14):
look, they needed to fuse myback.
So they ended up fusing my backand we came out the operation
because it was quite unstable,so they wanted to fuse.
It was a bit of a touch and gothat one.
They weren't.
It was should you, shouldn'tyou, and you don't know a lot in
the decisions for you to make,and you're like I almost I know
you guys are the docs, you knowwhat I mean.
So they fused my back and Icame out that operation and then

(14:35):
that flicker was gone.
And that was pretty scarybecause now I've got nothing
again.
And then as the days kickedaway, then it came back and then
as the days turned into weeksand into months, I started to
get a little bit more and then alittle bit of movement in my
ankle, a little bit of.
If I could lie there, I couldfeel that I could slightly flex
my quad on my right leg, so Icould feel it tight and it was

(14:58):
like I couldn't move the leg atall or anything like that, but I
felt like I'm talking to it.
Does that make sense?
You know, there was somethingthere that next year 2008, was a
lot of rehab, a lot of time inthe rehab center, lots and lots
of physical therapy.
I spent a lot of that time inthe wheelchair and, slowly but
surely, I just got a little bitmore, a little bit more, and we
slowly started ticking our wayalong.

(15:23):
Obviously, one of the biggestchallenges we haven't touched on
is that, as you'll know, claire, that when you have a spinal
cord injury, you lose all bowelcontrol, you lose all bladder
control and you lose yourability to digest food properly,
and so that was hard.
That was probably even harderthan nothing out of walk For me.
I'd obviously smashed out allthese teeth, so I'm missing half
of my teeth.
I'm in a wheelchair, I'mwearing nappies, I've got a bag

(15:46):
of urine strapped to my leg, andit was incredibly humbling.
People would stare at you allthe time.
It felt almost embarrassing ina way, and on top of that, when
you have these accidents becauseyou have no bowel control and
you also have no routine, a lotof guys that have had spinal
injuries for years they work outa routine so they know when
it's going to happen and theymake sure they're in a certain
place.

(16:06):
In the beginning it happensanytime, man, middle of physio
sessions, you have an accidentand it's just like.
I mean, the physio is all usedto it, it's that kind of stuff.
But man, as like a grown man,that was hard to handle, that
was tough.
Slowly but surely I just got alittle bit more, a little bit
more, and then I started tolearn to stand with these braces

(16:26):
on the back of my legs thatheld me upright.
And then after that, then Istarted between parallel bars
and then I started to do it withsome crutches and I also had
this kind of cage around the topof my body like a brace that
held me upright, becauseobviously I've lost all core
strength and stuff as well.
It's not just legs, because mylevel, I've lost the bottom two
stomach muscles and things.
And then it just started to getjust a little bit better, just

(16:48):
a little bit better, just alittle bit better.
And then sometimes you'dplateau for a bit and you'd be
like, no, I need some more.
One of the things I needed waship flexors.
I didn't have hip flexors andif I didn't get that I wouldn't
be able to walk, and so it waslike I need hip flexors, and
then one of them would just firea little bit, and then, as we
went along and so just slowlygot a little bit more, a little
bit more, and then I startedwalking, taking a couple of

(17:10):
steps like super dodgy, my feetdragging and all sorts of things
.
And it would be one of thosewhere I sometimes get asked well
, how long did it take to walk?
And I'm like what do youconsider walking?
You know one step.
Can you walk to the bathroom?
Can you walk around a shoppingmall?
Where does it go, you know?
So a lot of that time in thebeginning was I was in a
wheelchair if we went out, but Icould not use a wheelchair like

(17:32):
between my bed and the bathroomfor argument's sake or that
kind of stuff.
And so it was.
You talk about the goals thing.
There was a lot of that likelittle goals, like time, how
long it takes you to get dressed.
Count how many steps you can dobefore your legs just start
spasming and there's no morepower left.

(17:52):
And it was all those littlemilestones of just like little
things.
That was probably the stuffthat kind of kept you going
because it was depressing, itwas tough, and so I needed to be
reminded of how far I came.
And my wife, meredith, wasreally good at that.
She'd be like, hey, man,remember a month ago you
couldn't do this or you couldn'tdo that.
And look, you're doing it now.
And then it's so.
I think it was really good tolook over your shoulder and go,
hey, I've come a long way, Ineed to be grateful for where

(18:19):
I'm at.
And then you look ahead and yougo, whoa, I've got tons to go.
And that, week on week, monthon month, and then you know,
obviously with my story, becamea year on year.
I started to make this progress.

Charlie Reading (18:30):
And I think it's amazing in that it's very
much like when you're in anendurance event itself, isn't it
?
You know, when you have thosedark moments, if you're thinking
about, oh my God, I've stillgot 24 miles to run, or whatever
it is you're like, oh, you justtotally destroy your head,
Whereas if you think one step infront of the other, or just

(18:50):
think about the next aid stationor the next lamppost or
wherever, then you bring it backto the present.
So I think that's reallyinteresting.
That was what helped you atthat time.
So at what point in thisjourney did you start going back
to thinking I'm going to do theDakar rally, and how on earth
did you go from setting a goal?
What point did you set thatgoal?
How did you set that goal?
But then how did you implementit?

Joey Evans (19:11):
Okay, cool.
I'll start off by saying that Iran some marathons and ultra
marathons before I was paralyzed, so I quite enjoyed the running
thing as well.
So I can relate a lot to that.
And it was like I remember whenI used to run.
It would be like you'd havekilometer markers and it would
be like, all right, then youjust focus on the next kilometer
marker.
You're not thinking about, yeah, I'm going to be dead in five
kilometers.
It was just one more kilometer,one more kilometer.

(19:33):
So I can relate to exactly whatyou're saying on that.
In terms of the goal for Dakar,sure man, in that hospital I'd
lie there at night on my own inthe dark and I'd be like man.
Can you imagine if I could comeback from this and still raise
Dak?
Oh man, that would be epic.
But it really wasn't.
If I'm being honest, I didn'tthink it was a possibility at

(19:54):
that time.
It just didn't feel possible.
But it sparked that little oh,but if we did, how cool would
that be.
And so it started in thathospital and then, as we went
along, you know, you take thatfirst step and you go, oh, but
imagine if you could.
And then a little bit by littlebits and so it was.
The seed was definitely in thathospital right from the get go

(20:15):
and then it started to grow andthen when I started to learn to
walk again, it was like oh, younever know, you never know,
maybe, kind of thing.
Two and a half years, I wouldsay about after breaking my back
, I rode a motorcycle again forthe first time and it was just a
buddy's bike and I rode just ina circle around a field super
slow.
They had to start the bike forme, help to lift me on all that

(20:35):
sort of stuff.
It was pretty sketchy and justout of view of my wife.
But yeah, we did a littlecircle around this field and I
remember that feeling of beingable to twist that throttle and
just move effortlessly, becauseI couldn't run, I couldn't jump,
I couldn't play any of thesports and things I used to do,
and just that twisting andmoving and it was pretty amazing
and that was really a day thatI was like man, I wonder if we

(20:56):
could do this, man.
And then it was three and a halfyears after breaking my back
that I started like riding againand I went and did a race where
I actually like completelysucked.
It was a format where we hadthree hours through as many laps
of this enduro course as wecould.
I think the course is probablyabout eight kilometers long,

(21:17):
something like that and I gotlapped six times by guys I used
to be able to beat, and so thatwas incredibly humbling,
incredibly difficult, and I madeit my goal to just finish one
lap and three hours ran out,still hadn't finished my one lap
.
And I used that same kind ofstrategy I did in the hospital
where I was being in thesemountains or in these little
hills I guess you'd call them wecall them kopis here in South

(21:38):
Africa, little rocky kopis and Iwould just pick a rock, like 10
meters ahead, and I'd be likejust to that rock and I'd just
hack my way to that next rockand then I'd be like pick
another one and then I'd justkeep hacking my way through.
The three hours ran out and Istill hadn't finished that one
lap.
But I kept going and Ieventually got to that finish
line and obviously I wastime-bored when I finished, but

(21:58):
I clearly remember riding thatbike on the limit, crossing that
finish line, just wentna-na-na-na-na-na-na-na, you
know, punching the edge,completely stone lost the guys
in the pits thought I was crazy,but it was a little bit of a
personal win there.
And then it was like I'm goingto do this, man, I'm going to
chase this Dakar goal.

Claire Fudge (22:15):
Awesome.
First question is what did yourwife think if you're getting
back on a motorbike?

Joey Evans (22:19):
She was cool with it .
To be honest, it was one ofthose.
I get asked a lot about thatdynamic between me and Meredith,
because a lot of comments I getwhen I do talks at corporates
and stuff was they'll often say,yeah, she should have left you
years ago, and those kinds ofthings, and maybe they're not
wrong.
But it's one of those where youguys look at the type of stuff
you guys do, or a lot of peoplethat you interview do why do you

(22:40):
want to do trail runs of over100 kilometers through the
mountains and stuff?
Like it's just kind ofridiculous, isn't it?
You know, and you think of allthese kind of things, what it
does for you.
You know that it like it helpsyou with your headspace, man, it
gives you something to aim for,it gives you a big juicy goal
that you want to just, yeah,sink your teeth into, and it
gives you purpose and it givesyou all these kind of things.
And so part of a marriage is tounderstand what's important to

(23:05):
your spouse and you have to seeit through their eyes.
And so the way it works is ifsomething's important to Merida,
it's important to me, and thesame the other way if
something's important to me,it's important to her, and so
she would see that and she wouldbe like, yeah, she gets it.
She gets that.
She didn't marry a guy that,just you know, putters around a

(23:25):
golf course on a weekend and shedidn't marry a guy that, just
you know, putters around a golfcourse on a weekend.
And you know, she married a guywho likes to do extreme sports
and that kind of stuff and a lotof that sort of stuff makes me
tick.
I want that adventure, I wantthat kind of doing something
that not everybody wants to do,you know.
And she gets that.
And she saw the joy andfulfillment I got from doing
these kinds of sports and stuffand so she supported me.

(23:46):
I must say she a hundredpercent supported me with all of
these things through the years.
And getting back on the bikeagain, she was there.
She would come and watch merace and she would be on that
start line.
She was on the start line theday I broke my back.
She was there with me and sheran across that field when she
saw that crash.
So it was a pretty, prettyhorrendous day that one, but

(24:10):
after that she would still cometo the races and we'd bring my
daughters as well sometimes andthey'd be in the pits of the
races and that kind of stuff.
So it was something that itwasn't.
I definitely didn't have topush against the family to do it
.
I had to find balance.
So one of the things is a lotof guys will go riding on a
Saturday morning and thenthey'll come back pretty beat
and they'll just fall asleep onthe couch, drink a beer and
watch the rugby and that kind ofstuff.
Whereas for me, with fourlittle daughters, the deal was

(24:32):
you go riding on a Saturdaymorning, you get back at
lunchtime and then we do familystuff in the afternoons.
So that was kind of a deal tomake it all work.
And so I'd come back, I'm likeI'm beat up, I'm full of
scratches from thorn trees andhad a good ride all morning, and
then I'm like all right, get ashower and let's go Family time.
You know you make it work.
I think you can destroy yourfamily by being too selfish

(24:52):
about your sports or your goalsor that kind of stuff, but I
think you can destroy yourselfby totally not doing any of that
stuff.

Claire Fudge (25:09):
You don't want to be a super selfish dude, but you
don't want to be a boring dudethat just sits on the couch all
day that you've got to find thatbalance.
I think what you've said aboutone finding the balance but also
keeping your passions, and thatis such a passion of yours and
it seems like that was a massivedriving factor to really help
your recovery, get you back towhere you wanted to be and
actually do all these amazingevents.
You've talked about lots ofthese like little mini goals to
get you to like this big goal.
How did you sort of go aboutmaking goals to get you to the

(25:32):
Dakar?
Like, how did that happen?
Did you have these kind ofbigger goals in your mind to get
there, or was it all these kindof smaller goals along the way?

Joey Evans (25:40):
No, it was quite good.
The Dakar thing really gave mepurpose because it was like it's
the biggest, gnarliest, mostdangerous off-road race in the
world.
So if you want to aim forsomething in the off-road racing
world, there's nothing bigger.
That's the big one.
And so to aim that high it'spretty nuts for most guys, and
it was for me.
Before being paralyzed, it waslike, yeah, I really want to do

(26:01):
that race one day, but I don'tknow if I'll ever be able to
pull that off.
But what's cool about it is youcan break that goal up.
It's a very easy goal to breakup into sections because if you
look at it it's cool.
You've got to finish the race,so you've got to have all the
skills, all the fitness, allthat kind of stuff once you're
on the race.
But prior to that you have tobe selected to do the race.

(26:22):
You have to qualify, and sothere's a list of things you
have to do in order to be ableto qualify, and part of that is
you have to submit a racing CVto the company that owns Dakar
the ASO the same guys who ownthe Tour de France and on that
racing CV you had to do one ofthe full international rallies
in the pro class.
So you had to finish one ofthose and they're normally about

(26:43):
five, six, seven day races andthen under that you had to have
done several multiple day racesall around the world or wherever
you are with that kind of stuff, and then you had to have done
a whole bunch of local andinternational races.
So part of all of this forDakar, for the motorcycles, it's
a lot easier to enter Dakar ina car because it's such a high

(27:03):
barrier of entry in terms ofmoney and that kind of stuff,
and it's also a lot safer forcars.
But for bikers, they losebikers, sometimes more than one
in a year, and sometimes they'llgo a year where they don't lose
a biker, and so bikers are themost at risk.
So they're pretty stringentabout who they let on that start
line, because they've got tomake sure these guys don't die
in the desert and that kind ofstuff.
So you have to submit thisracing CV and so you break it

(27:25):
all down, and so if you breakthat racing CV down backwards I
need to race again.
That's number one.
So I've got to start that firstrace, which is what I told you
about a moment ago and thenafter that, getting time-bought
at that race, I did others and Istarted to finish races.
And so now I need some multipleday races and we had an event

(27:45):
series called the Amagia Zarelliand these were races.
They started off as just asingle day navigational style
race and it ended up being atkind of its highest was a seven
day off-road race through theNorthern Cape, which is really
desolate, and Botswana, which isobviously very raw and wild
animals and all sorts of stuffout there.
And so then through the years,I started doing all these local

(28:08):
races, started finishing races,then I moved up to doing
multiple day races and I didthree different Amagaza rallies
you only got one each year and Istarted doing that and then
after that, then I needed thatbig international rally.
So it was quite an easy ladderwith these very clearly defined
rungs that I needed to do and Ibroke that up and then over the

(28:29):
years, I just ticked away atthat and I did the big
international rally in 2016.
I think it was about April 2016,where I went to Morocco and I
went and raced in the Mazugarally and that was a six-day
race and we raced through thedeserts there, part of the
Sahara there in Morocco.
Just an amazing race, that oneand I came back from that race

(28:50):
and at that point I hadeverything I needed for my DAC
or CV.
But you don't know if they'regoing to select you.
Still, they got a lot of CVsand they select normally about I
think it's around about 140riders from around the world
each year.
And yeah, in 2016, I submittedmy entry and it was about
halfway through 2016.
And I got the letter to saythat I was accepted and I

(29:12):
remember opening up thatattachment and going whoa, I was
so pumped, you know I can'tbelieve it.

Charlie Reading (29:22):
And then I was like, oh crap, what have I done?
Now I've got to go do this race.
It's unbelievable.
You overcome this incrediblechallenge of being told that
you're paralyzed for life, andyou've overcome that.
And then you overcome this hugechallenge that is getting to
the point where you can qualifyto be selected for Dakar.
Talk us through that race,because I know you had some
highs and lows within that race.
Talk us through what the DakarRally was like when you finally

(29:45):
got there.

Joey Evans (29:46):
You know, leading up to the race, there would be
like lots of sleepless nights.
Can I pull this off?
Is this?
What have I done?
You know, am I just being crazy?
Am I going to die out therethere?
You know there was so muchgoing on in in my head and stuff
, a lot of self-doubt, and thenI can do this.
You know what I mean and thatkind of stuff.
So there was a lot of back andforth but, yeah, I got on that
start line and that's exciting,man.

(30:07):
You start off and you're goingto the riders briefing and
you're seeing all these top guysand you're lining up on the
start line with all these topraces.
It's one of the few sportswhere you can you're literally
racing against the best guys inthe world.
I mean, if you enjoy racingcars, you can imagine lining up
with all the Formula One driversand you're just on the start
line, just Joey from SouthAfrica sitting there with all
these guys.
That's how it felt.

(30:28):
So it was incredibly cool to bethere, incredibly intimidating,
and then, yeah, off we went andI realized I'd done a lot of
racing up until that point,obviously to qualify and things,
but suddenly I was like man, Iam like out of my league here.
And it really hit home at theend of the third day because I
was racing for an average ofabout 16 hours a day and I was

(30:51):
sleeping for just four or fivehours each night.
And at the end of day three I'mdestroyed.
My hands are blistered, my lipsare split, I'm falling asleep
on the bike, every muscle in mybody is just cramping up and I'm
like man, I'm just out of myleague and I'm lying like right
near the back of the motorcycleclass and I'm like I do not

(31:12):
belong here.
I'm not good enough to be here.
I and I'm like I do not belonghere.
I'm not good enough to be here,I'm not strong enough to be
here.
I am destroyed.
At the end of day three of a13-day race, you can imagine
just like cramping up at fivekilometers into a marathon and
going like there's just no way.
This is just impossible.
And it was a really toughrealization that there's no ways

(31:34):
I'm going to get to the end ofthis race.
And I kind of used that samestrategy I did in the hospital
where I was like, okay, one moreday, and we just focused on
that day.
And so day four.
I got up and I raced on day four, and day four of the 2017 Dakar
Rally actually turned out to beone of the most brutal days in
Dakar history.
We had to cross a dune field ofI think it was just over a

(31:56):
hundred kilometers and it was athigh altitude just over 4,000
meters in Bolivia, and the dunesare really soft and the bikes
kept sinking down into the dunesand the bikes lack power at
altitude and things.
So it was like it was justcarnage.
Man, there was just bikeseverywhere.
There was a bike on fire Inthat one section.
Out of like 140 odd guys whostarted the race, 18 riders all

(32:21):
went out just in that onesection alone.
It was horrendous, you know,but I just kept hacking my way
through, hacking my way.
You get a little clump of grassand the sand blows up against
this kind of clump of grass andthen the other sand blows up
against that clump.
You just kind of get theselittle mounds and guys were
trying to ride and the sand wasso soft.
Guys were just struggling andit also all being churned up

(32:41):
with cars and trucks, becauseyou were right at the back of
the field and you could hearguys just revving bikes and just
struggling and struggling, andtwo of my teammates went out in
that section on the Dutch teamthat I was on, and what I did,
though, is I would pick one ofthose little mounds and I'd say
right to that mound there, and Iwould just give it flat out to
do what I could, and get ontothat mound, and I'd stop with my

(33:02):
front wheel just over the topof the mound so I'm just
slightly facing downhill and I'dstop, and I'd switch the bike
off and give it sort of 20seconds, 30 seconds, just to
cool a little bit, and I'd lookfor the next mound and I'd go
right just to the end.
I'd be get on the next mound,stop, and I just did it like
that, and it was that patienceand that like same kind of 10
meters, 10 meters, 10 meters,and I'd always stop at a place

(33:25):
that I could pull off from.
A lot of riders will fight itand get stuck, and then they
start from a stuck position, andthen they go again and get to
another stuck position, and thenthey start from a stuck
position, and it just burnscalories and it just cooks your
motor and your clutch andeverything, and I did this stop
on a mound, stop on a mound,stop on a mound and I just kept
just ticking and eventually Igot through some of the
gnarliest sections there and Igot through that day four and I

(33:48):
finished that day four and thenon day five we crossed over the
Andes Mountains and that was.
We had these switchback dirttracks that were on their way
through the mountains and wewent over 5,000 meters in
altitude.
So it was super, super high andit was raining a lot.
It rained for like eight daysof that race.
By the way, it was just insanethe amount of rain.

(34:09):
Oh, you guys are from England.
You're like only eight out of13.
That's nothing, but it justrained and it was so wet and
then as you got higher up inaltitude it was hailing and then
at the tops of these mountainsit was snowing and it was just
it was ridiculous.
But all those tracks were justcomplete slosh and you got these
switchback tracks winding theway through the mountains and on

(34:30):
the switchbacks it's justhundreds of meters down to the
valleys below.
So it's super sketchy, man, youovershoot a corner, you do the
Wiley Coyote thing in midair andthen falling down.
It was just crazy and three ofus South Africans on that race
the previous day one of myteammates on the Dutch team was
a South African guy and it wasBass Trucks we were with, and
that was Walter de Blanche.
He burnt out his motor, he wasout the race.

(34:52):
And then on that fifth day inthe mountains I came across the
other South African guy, whichwas David Thomas, and he'd had a
big crash and I stayed with him.
I found him lying in the mudthere and I stayed with him and
they landed the medicalhelicopter in those mountains
and helped to carry him and puthim in the helicopter and things
and he was then medevaced outthe race and it turned out he'd

(35:14):
broken his leg in eight placesso he was out.
So we lost a few riders thatnext day again and I just then
had to get back on the bike andfinish that day.
And I finished day five andthen day six, day seven, and
there was like, oh, there's somany things that happen each day
.
I couldn't tell you everythingevery day, but I finished, I
think, two days out of thatentire race in the light.

(35:36):
So I was finishing at nightevery night.
So you started four o'clock inthe morning and I'm finishing
off the dock and it got dark atabout 8 pm there.
So it was just these long days,just day after day, and it was
just like the best way that Icould do.
It is, I would just almost likea robot.
That alarm would go off, I'dsit up and I'd get out.
We slept on the back of a truckand I'd get up straight away.

(35:58):
None of this like, okay,stretch, let me think about
nothing.
Just get up and you go sit andthen you eat.
And you got to eat and you'reeating at like three o'clock in
the morning.
You're eating like a bowl ofpasta and you're barely awake
and you're literally justshoving it down your throat and
you're like you're trying tofight the gag reaction because
you just got to get the caloriesin you every day and then get
back on that bike and, yeah,just hacked my way through.

(36:21):
And there were so manydifferent things.
Don't have time for the storiestoday, but out of 13 days, I
got all the way to day 12.
And that day 12 is the day thatI'll remember the rest of my
life.
And what happens at Dakar is youstart in the order that you
finished the day before.
So I started stone last becauseI'd finished day 11 stone last.

(36:42):
And so I'm right at the backand after they send all the
bikes, from four in the morninguntil all the bikers are gone,
they have a little 30 second gapbetween all the riders, and
then, once all the riders aregone, they wait half an hour or
so and then they send the carsand then they send the trucks.
But now, like we discussedearlier, the cars and trucks are

(37:04):
a lot faster than a lot of thebikers and so they'll move
through that bike field and thatis one of the most dangerous
situations.
And it was mid-morning and Ientered into a semi-arid desert
and there was a twin trackwinding its way through.
But over the years those trackshad got like deeper and deeper,
so it was like two parallelruts and these ruts were filled
with fish, which is like reallyfine dirt, it's like talcum

(37:24):
powder, and so it's hard to seethese ruts.
And so as bikers we're racingalong at maybe 50 or 60
kilometers an hour, trying tostay in these ruts, because you
can't ride outside the tracks,because there's some vegetation
and that center island is toosteep to ride on, so you just
prick a rut and you're trying tostay in these ruts.
But the cars and trucks, theirfour wheels, will naturally

(37:44):
track into these ruts, so theseguys are coming through at like
double our speed.
And so I'm racing along in thisleft hand right and my alarm
goes off on my bike, which tellsme there's a car behind me that
wants to overtake.
Now.
Normally they buzz you about200 meters back, so so they give
you plenty chance to, like youknow, pull off the track, find a

(38:05):
place, because you can't justpull off straight away.
There's vegetation and speedsand all that sort of stuff.
So generally as a biker, you'dslow down, look for a place,
pull pull off and stop and thenabout 10 seconds later, whatever
this car comes flying past you.
But my alarm goes off.
I turn around, he's 20 metersback, he's doing double my speed
and I've literally got abouttwo seconds to get out of this

(38:27):
guy's way and I just swing mybars over just to try to swerve
off into the vegetation to getout of his way.
But right where I am, that rutwas deep.
It was as deep as the axle onmy front wheel.
And I'm in this rut and I swingthese bars over and that front
wheel just doesn't climb up therut and I've already committed
my weight and this bike's goingdown and I hit the ground and as

(38:51):
the bike goes into the ground Iseparate off the bike and the
car misses me by centimeters.
And then I just hear crunch andthis guy crashes right into my
bike and completely rides rightover my motorcycle.

Charlie Reading (39:06):
And so is that the end of the race, or what
happens next?

Joey Evans (39:11):
The guy stopped about 30 meters away and the
navigator puts one foot out thecar and gives me a thumbs up and
I'm like I'm on my knees nextto this bike and I'm like, no,
you know, come back here Alongwith some other words.
He just got back in that carand they just drove off.
They just left me there on thefloor with my bike, still in the
middle of the track, justdestroyed, parts lying

(39:33):
everywhere, and I just draggedthat bike out of the track and
picked up a few of the partsthat were all lying around and
stuff and got out of the waybecause obviously there's more
cars and trucks coming through.
And I couldn't believe it.
This bike was completelydestroyed.
The whole exhaust had beencompletely flattened and all
bent up into the back wheel.
The whole navigation tower wasjust all mangled and bent back

(39:56):
into the handlebars of the bike.
The handlebars were all bent,all the suspensions bent up.
So you had what we call thetriple clamps at the front of
the bike that holds the frontsuspension.
They're all bent.
The radiator's damaged.
The seat is torn out of themounting.
There's three petrol tanks onthe bike.
Two of the petrol tankscompletely destroyed.
All the fuels run out.
The whole frame of the bike isbent and I couldn't believe it.

(40:20):
It had taken me 10 years, sinceI'd been paralyzed, to get to
the start of that race and it'sthe second last day and I'm out
of this race.
And it was dark, it was toughand I thought about Meredith and
I knew she'd be worried becauseshe's tracking me on the Dacor
app.
She'll see I'm stone lost andnot moving and I know every
minute that goes past she'sgetting more and more worried

(40:41):
and I carry a satellite phonewhen I do these races.
And so I pulled out the satphone and I called her up and I
told her what happened and andshe just cried and we stood
there together and just couldn'tbelieve how unfair this felt.
It just felt just so incrediblyunfair.
It was like this is not right,you know, not on any level.
And I hung up the phone and Ilooked at that bike and I looked

(41:04):
at the road book on the bikeand I still had 660 kilometers
to race that day and there'snothing I can do to get a bike
like that 660 kilometers.
But rally racing is verydifferent to any other kind of
racing and one of the thingsthat makes it so different is
that there's no cutoff time thatday.
The only rule is you have to beon the start line at the next

(41:26):
point by your start time thenext morning.
And I decided when I startedthat race that I would never
quit that race.
The only way I'd go out therace is I'd be time bought.
So I would just fight untilthere was just no time left, and
so I decided that's what I'mgoing to do.
I'm only going to be out ofthis race at four o'clock
tomorrow morning.
That's the only way I go out.
I started stripping the bike andI had to strip the whole

(41:47):
exhaust off the bike just to getthe back wheel to turn, because
it was all bent up into it.
I isolated the fuel tanks thatwere damaged.
I had to strip some of thenavigation equipment off the
front of the bikes just to getthe bars to be able to turn and,
yeah, it was just ram the seatback in, repaired the air filter
as best I could and I got thatbike working.
I'd also ripped off the rightfoot peg with all the frame

(42:08):
mountings and everything, so Ididn't have anywhere to put my
right foot either on this bentbike with bent bars and no
exhaust put my right foot eitheron this bent bike with bent
bars and no exhaust and I juststarted like limping along but I
couldn't ride in that trackanymore because there was cars
and trucks coming through and Icouldn't ride in a rut because
the wheels didn't line up.
The frame was so bent you seethose scooters in the third
world countries where the wheelsaren't even close to in front

(42:29):
of each other and I just limpedalong through this like
semi-arid desert and the time'sjust going, man, there's no ways
it's going to take me like twoweeks to cover that distance
that I've got to do in the next16 hours or whatever.
It was just wasting my time,just ridiculous.
And I just kept ticking awaythinking back to the last 10
years and all the sacrifice, allthe money, and this race is

(42:51):
over, but I'm not quitting, I'monly going out and being
time-bored.
And then the most incrediblething happened and in the middle
of this semi-arid desert Ifound a bike and it was a bike
of a rider who'd crashed and itturned out he'd actually broken
both his arms and he'd beenmedevaced out the race.

(43:12):
And so that bike stays thereuntil the sweeper truck at the
back of the race comes along andcollects this bike and the
rules of Dakar is, I can't ridethat bike but I can use parts
from that bike.
And so I started stripping thatbike and there were these three
Argentinian guys just on olddirt bikes, in the middle of

(43:33):
nowhere, just spectators.
Hadn't seen anyone for ages.
Just these three dudes middleof nowhere on these spectators.
I hadn't seen anyone for ages,just these three dudes middle of
nowhere on these I don't know1990 off-road bikes kind of
thing.
And these guys helped me and westripped that whole bike.
We stripped all the exhaust offthe bike, we stripped the whole
side of the frame, we siphonedall the fuel out of the bike.
I still needed like the radiator, the handlebars, so much more

(43:53):
stuff.
But I'd lost so much timefixing the bike first time, so
much time the second timelimping along as well.
At this point I was four hoursbehind the guy who was second
last and I just had to get goingand so off I went and I rode
the rest of that day alone forliterally hundreds of kilometers
through South America and thenit got dark and that night I

(44:15):
just kept going road throughforests and dune fields and all
sorts of stuff.
Crossing rivers in SouthAmerica at night on your own is
pretty scary, by the way, andjust kept taking my way along
midnight one o'clock in themorning, two o'clock in the
morning I was still riding, andat quarter past two in the
morning I got to that secondlast bivouac and, long story

(44:35):
short, I slept for one hour andthen I rode another 850
kilometers the last day andfinished the Dakar really.

Claire Fudge (44:43):
I was just trying to think from a cycling
perspective.
Imagine if we were doing a raceand we stripped someone's bike
down and just made our own andcarried on.

Joey Evans (44:52):
I've seen guys ride spectators bikes, so they've
stolen whole bikes.
I know you guys are all sosketchy.

Charlie Reading (44:59):
I'm just thinking I'd have liked to have
stolen some of Patrick Langer'sbike at the Ironman in Hawaii a
couple of weeks ago.

Claire Fudge (45:04):
There you go, this story is just captivating To
listen to you telling it.
It's just amazing.
Have you always had this real?
Nothing is going to stop me,I'm always going to finish.
Or do you think actually, theaccident that you had and what
you had to go through from arehabilitation perspective, do
you think that really changedyour mindset?

Joey Evans (45:26):
100%.
Nobody's born resilient.
Resilience isn't something youget born with, it's not
something that's genetic, it'ssomething that you earn.
It's the only way to get it.
And I remember those marathonsand ultra marathons in my early
twenties and I remember thinking, man, that's, yeah, that's
pretty hardcore.
You know, I used to think thatwas cool.
You know, I mean I still thinkit's cool, don't get me wrong.
But I was like when I was inthat hospital and I was

(45:49):
paralyzed and you're trying to,you're trying to stay positive
in that environment.
You realize that all these kindof sports that we do, even if
it's, you know, dakar orwhatever, you know it's easy,
man, that's easy compared tobeing paralyzed.
And obviously spinal cordinjuries is something I've
experienced.
But people out there would haveexperienced many different

(46:11):
physical challenges.
I mean, there's all sorts ofillnesses and diseases and
conditions people have that justdevastate your life physically.
And when you're in thatenvironment and you have to stay
positive and you have to workhard and you're in a place where
you feel like your life isdestroyed, that is tough.
Those are the tough guys, notthe guys getting the medals on

(46:33):
the boxes.
Man, that's the guy in a rehabcenter that's getting up every
day and he's doing that physioand stuff.
Those are the tough guys.
And so for me, being in thathospital, that was probably the
time in my life that I would sayI developed the most resilience
.
And so when you push throughthat kind of stuff, suddenly
this is just a race man.
You know you can do this.
This isn't.

(46:54):
It almost doesn't feel likeit's even real life, because you
know what they say.
You've got a thousand problemsuntil you've got a health
problem and then you've got oneproblem.
I think it was earned throughthose years at Resilience.

Charlie Reading (47:04):
And also so I always think.
It reminds me of a saying thatI can't remember where I got
from, but when I'm struggling ina dark place, in an endurance
event, I always think I get todo this, I've chosen to do this.
The guys that you're talkingabout, they don't choose to do
that.
They're dealing with it and youwere dealing with it when you
were in that dark place, whereaswhen we're in an endurance

(47:25):
event, we are choosing to be apart of it.

Joey Evans (47:27):
Yeah, and also, like I mean even Dakar, which is
obviously one of the longestendurance races I would think in
the world of when you'retalking 13 days, it's nothing
compared to some guy who'sliving with, like a cancer that
debilitates him, or someonedealing with muscular dystrophy
or cerebral palsy or these kindsof things you know, or a spinal
cord injury.
I mean it's.
You know, you're in a marathon,it's all going to be over in a

(47:49):
few hours, buddy, this guy hasto suck it up every day, again
and again, the same thing fordays and weeks and months and
years, and he's still got to bepositive and he's still got to
get going, even though he'sstruggling.
And it's like those are thetough dudes, man.

Charlie Reading (48:04):
Looking back, obviously, since you had the
accident and you broke your back, you've had some incredible
highs, but also some incrediblelows.
Highs, but also some incrediblelows.
If you could go back and changethat and have the choice not to
go through that and thereforesacrifice the highs and lows
that come with it, since, wouldyou choose to amend it or would

(48:26):
you choose to take it as?

Joey Evans (48:28):
it was dealt.
That's always a tough one whenpeople ask that because the way
it's worked out has been prettyincredible.
But I still deal with a lot ofcomplications from my spinal
cord injury.
So to give you an idea,physically I still can't run, I
can't jump, I can't feel hot orcold or pain sensation below my
chest.
My legs still spasm when I gettired or when my adrenaline goes

(48:50):
.
I can't sweat below my chest,so it's difficult to regulate my
body temperature.
I still have to take medicationevery day to help me to digest
food and, to be perfectly frank,I still have to self-catheter
five or six times every day andhave been doing that for 17
years now.
I deal with a lot of physicalcomplications still every day

(49:13):
and I will deal with thosecomplications for the rest of my
life and a lot of thosecomplications will also impact
probably how old I'll live toand that kind of stuff as well.
So it's a heavy price that Ihaven't paid yet and I'm still
paying dues on that price and,to be honest, if I could go back
, of course I wouldn't want tohave that crash that day.
I'd love to still race the Dakar, I'd love to still done all

(49:34):
these rides.
But if I could have done it allwithout that crash, that would
be pretty amazing.
You know to kind of have my myable body back, if that makes
sense.
But I have had such richnessfrom riding motorcycles, you
know.
I've ridden now in like over 40countries throughout the world.
I've wild camped in Namibia andridden in the salt flats in

(49:57):
Bolivia and passed the pyramidsin Egypt and the Rift Valley in
Kenya and Australia and NewZealand and Lebanon and all
these kind of cool places, youknow.
And so it's like the richnessand value it's brought to my
life has been incredible.
I love motorcycles, I loveadventure, I love racing, but I
would say I enjoy adventure morethan racing.
When I'm racing I'm there forthe adventure, if that makes

(50:19):
sense.
I don't care about positionsand that kind of stuff.
If you said to me if you couldgo back, would you ride
motorcycles?
Hell yeah, I'd ride motorcyclesand I'd take those risks.
If I could have had all thegood without the accident, hell
yeah, I'll take that too, man.
But it's tough because theaccident has caused a lot of
pain but it's also opened a lotof opportunities.
But it would be great to have abody that works well again.

(50:43):
I think all of us.
If you look back to when wewere in our 20s and be like I'd
like that body again, that'd begreat.
So yeah, there's definitely apart of me that wants that.
So if I could have all the goodwithout the bad, I'd take that.
But yeah, it's hard and it'sstill going to be hard.

Charlie Reading (50:56):
You've written a bestselling book which tells
this story, but we ask everyguest for books that have
inspired them on their journey.
Are there any books that youfind yourself recommending or
books that helped you in thosedarker times?

Joey Evans (51:11):
I love comeback stories.
I love those kind of things,you know, ones where guys just
kind of push through.
I read one recently which wasEndurance I think it was called
the one with I think I've got ithere, I can look it up quick
yeah, by Alfred Lansing.
So it's the whole Shackletonthing when they were down by the
South Pole and stuff.
And I just love those oneswhere you just kind of like

(51:32):
couple more days, do whatever ittakes to just keep yourself in
the game a little bit longer,just to stay in the race, yeah,
and so that was one I reallyenjoyed.
I really enjoy like thestoicism type of books, you know
, like the Ron holiday ones andthose kinds of things.
I read a few of those.
I really enjoy those.
I like comeback stories, man.
I like it when bad thingshappen and some dude just bites

(51:55):
down hard.
In south africa we call it fussbait, which means to bite hard,
and so it's just you.
It's that it's fuss bait.

Charlie Reading (52:02):
Ones where guys are counted out but they just
hang in there and they end uptriumphing over the challenges
and actually you're not thefirst person to recommend
endurance, but I I haven't readit yet, so that's, that is
definitely a push towards me, uh, getting up to the top of the
reading list, because it doessound fantastic I listen.

Joey Evans (52:20):
I do audiobooks, I'm an audiobook guy.
I listened to that one ridingmy mountain bike and I was in
like a game reserve and I wasjust riding along listening to
this and it was.
It was cool, man.
It just got my mind going andstuff, and I think it was so
much so I actually came across.
I was on this little climb andI was on my own.
It was a weekday afternoon andI started going up this climb
and I'm like listening to thisbook and I'm I'm looking down.

(52:42):
You know like when you'reclimbing on a bike and you're
looking down like a meter infront of your front wheel, and I
just heard this noise, thatkind of thing, and I looked up
and there was three rhinos justa few meters away from me under
a tree, and I flipped that barkaround and I just went straight
down that hill and my heart wasgoing and my legs were spasming.
I had a bit of a close callthere.
So, yeah, so I had a bit of amemory with that one.

Charlie Reading (53:04):
Oh, that sounds awesome.
That sounds right on my street.
There's the.
I still would love to do thelay while marathon, which
obviously is the marathonthrough a game reserve, for
similar reasons.
It just would be amazing.
Yeah, it definitely would be agood motivation, wouldn't it?
And one of the other traditionswe have on the podcast is we
get the last guest to ask thenext guest a question without
knowing who that's going to be.
Now you actually get twoquestions, because our last

(53:26):
guest was triathlon couplenon-stanford and aaron royal, so
I think claire has got non anda Aaron's questions for you.

Claire Fudge (53:35):
Number one what will be the next technology to
move your sport forward, andwill AI ever replace a coach?

Joey Evans (53:45):
Some of the things that we use on the motorcycle is
we've always had what we call apaper roadbook, and so it's
like this massive scroll and itgives you an instructions.
So you have a block withinstructions, another block with
instructions and it's got likea little picture that shows you
where to go and it's got like akilometer reading and then it's
got some warning signs, which isall in the French symbols that

(54:06):
you have to like, learn off byheart to know what it means and
stuff.
So sometimes it'll mean like arut or it's sandy, or the bridge
is collapsed or it's a danger,or that kind of stuff.
Keep left, keep right over thisor whatever.
So it's kind of warnings andstuff and that's always been on
a paper scroll and we have alittle button on the side of the
bike that has a little motorthat goes.
This is going to move thislittle scroll and that's part of

(54:26):
the whole thing is thenavigation of it.
Obviously, since GPSs wereinvented, they kept the scroll
tradition and so it's like a bitof orienteering as well, with
racing is what Dakar is, and oneof the technologies that has
come through in.
This year is the first yearthat it's compulsory for all the
bikers to use.
It is now those are digital, soit's the same system, but now

(54:47):
it's a digital screen as opposedto a paper roadbook, so it's
obviously it's better for theenvironments and things, but it
is also it feels like you'retaking away a little bit of the
essence, because now it's allgets a bit smaller on the front
of the bike and that kind ofstuff, so the bikes get a bit
lighter.
But one of the beauties ofDakar is that it's raw.
People can die and people getinjured and you can get lost in
the desert and you can end upsleeping out in the middle of

(55:11):
some arid place on your own inthe middle of the night.
That's part of it, so you don'twant it to get too refined, but
it is nice to have tracking onthe bike, to know there's
someone coming for you at somepoints and that kind of stuff,
not like the old days where guyswould get lost for weeks in the
Sahara.
But yeah, so one of the thingsis that digital road books is a
new thing now for Dakar.
So that'll be it, and anotherone which is super cool I

(55:32):
actually got one for this nextrace.
I'm doing now is you have airvests, and so what they are is
they are like you now wear yourprotection, which is like a
jacket you put on, but it'sactually got built-in airbags,
it's got a computer systeminside of it that can tell when
you crash and it explodes injust a couple milliseconds, and
so it's making it safer for theriders, because, yeah, man, I

(55:54):
want to do all this cool stuff,but I still want to come home to
meredith and my daughters.
So that's a technology that isdefinitely making it better,
just making it safer for riders,because there's no glory in
crashing.
The fun is doing the races andcoming back afterwards.
The crashing is.
That's a part of it.
That is not the fun part.
So, yeah, airvests and digitalroad books that's how things are

(56:14):
moving forward with off-roadracing In terms of AI and the
coach.
Ai is a cool thing, man, andthere's going to be so many
things, and we're always veryhesitant to say what will happen
in the future, because no onecould have guessed where we are
now just a few years ago.
But I don't think so.
I think, coaches, they look inyour eyes.
They can see something in youreyes.
They can see what's happeningin your headspace.

(56:35):
I think computers can drawknowledge.
They have but that intuition ofseeing how hollow someone's
eyes are when they're workingout at a certain amount.
You can look in someone's eyesand you can see that they're out
of calories and they'redehydrated and they're in a
messed up state all stuff youcan measure.
But you can also see there'ssomething in their eyes that
says this dude's not about toquit.

(56:55):
I don't know how you'd pickthat up with AI, so I think, nah
, I'm going to go with no.

Charlie Reading (57:01):
Good answer.
I think there's a lot of thingsthat AI will do, but that is
essentially.
It's that emotionalintelligence piece that
certainly will be the last thingto go, won't it?
One final question for you,because I have a feeling there
is going to be something on thehorizon, and I think I don't
think it's too far away.
You've obviously done thisincredible race.
You've done many races since,but what's next?

Joey Evans (57:22):
After I raced Dakar in South America, I did the
Africa Eco Race, which was fromMonaco to Dakar, so it was the
original sort of North AfricanDakar route.
We raced 13 days all throughMorocco, Western Sahara,
Mauritania, all the way toSenegal.
That was a super cool race.
Lots of other stories of thatrace as well, including I hit a

(57:43):
camel in Mauritania, so there'sa whole other story about that.
Medevaced out but stillfinished the race with a broken
wrist and everything.
So there's a whole nother storythere.
You'll have to do one on thatone day.
The next one is in a week andtwo days from now.
I'm actually here in Las Vegasright now collecting a
motorcycle and I'm heading downto Mexico to go and race the

(58:05):
Baja 1000.
And I'm racing in the Ironmanclass.
Most guys do it in teams, soone bike does the whole race,
but you have five or six riders,so I'm doing it solo the whole
thousand miles, solo in theIronman class.
And it's the longest nonstopoff-road race in the world 36
hour cutoff.
So it starts and go.
We'll see how that goes.

(58:26):
I could do with a few moremonths to prepare.
It's been a tough year, man.
I had a rotator cuff surgery inApril, just a niggly injury
that's been going on for a fewyears and just finally had to
get it sorted.
And then I cracked my wristabout 10 weeks ago and then I
had tick bite fever.

Charlie Reading (58:44):
But yeah, we'll be on the start line and we're
going to face it with resilienceand do the best we can and
we'll see where it ends up itsounds like we do need another
episode at some point in thefuture where we find out about
how this particular race goesand perhaps some more of the
story between dakar and today.
But it's been absolutelybrilliant really.

(59:06):
It really inspiring for thosepeople that want to find out
more, want to buy the book, wantto maybe book you as a speaker.
Where's the best place to findyou?

Joey Evans (59:13):
and follow you.
The book is called From Para toDacor and it's available on
Audible as well as in ebook andprint format.
You can get it on Amazon andthat kind of stuff.
My website is joievanscoza.
I speak all over the world.

(59:34):
I've spoken in the uk a fewtimes and europe and the states
and that kind of stuff.
So anywhere there's aconference, I'm quite happy to
travel and I always try tosqueeze in a little bike ride
wherever I travel as well.
But yeah, you can get hold ofme through the website there.
That's probably the easiest.
It's got my cell number in onthe website and my personal
email address and all that sortof stuff as well, so I'm a
really easy guy to get hold of.
Yeah, drop me a mail and I'dlove to share some stories.

Charlie Reading (59:55):
Joey, it's been absolutely fantastic.
I look forward to followingyour Baja 1000.
I wish you the best of luckwith that.
Congratulations on everythingyou've done so far.
It's really a brilliant,inspiring story and thank you so
much for coming on to thepodcast.
Brilliant.

(01:00:16):
Brilliant, inspiring story.
And thank you so much forcoming on to the podcast,
brilliant, and thank you so muchfor the opportunity, guys.

Claire Fudge (01:00:19):
I super appreciate it, thank you.
So what did you make of theincredible interview with Joey
Number one?
He's got so much energy andstorytelling is amazing, isn't
it?
But great also to have on theBusiness of Endurance podcast
someone who's slightly differentin terms of what they do from a
motorcycle perspective.
I am not a motorcyclist, so tohear those stories were amazing
and, interestingly, to find outalso that he did have a
background doing some runningand some ultra running.

(01:00:41):
So I thought that's interestingin terms of mindset and story.
Have you ridden motorcycles inthe past?

Charlie Reading (01:00:46):
Yeah, I got a motorbike when I was seven and I
kept riding motorbikes until, Ithink, until I was about 14.
So I used to ride motorbikesaround the farm a lot, because
you didn't have to muck them outand they didn't need feeding
when you didn't want to use them.
So I can really relate to a lotof that, and I also can really
relate to how exhausting that is.
You think, oh, riding amotorbike isn't as tiring as

(01:01:08):
pedaling a bike because you'renot doing the work.
Actually, when you're bouncingaround through really rough
terrain it is exhausting, but tobe doing it for the best part
of 18 hours is really exhausting.
He didn't mention it actuallyon this episode, but he has to
put a rubber band to hold thethrottle in place.
It's like putting a brick onthe accelerator of a car or

(01:01:29):
cruise control, otherwise it'stoo tiring to hold the throttle
in place.
It's like putting a brick onthe accelerator of a car or
cruise control, otherwise it'stoo tiring to hold the
accelerator for that long, whichseems dangerous.
I thought it was brilliant.
You're absolutely right.
He's a fantastic storyteller.
What I really loved was how hebroke down those challenging
goals, whether it was recoveringfrom his horrible crash,
whether it was getting to theDakar rally.
It was like what can I do now?

(01:01:50):
Even in the Dakar rally, whenhe was in that penultimate day,
it's like, well, okay, I don'tthink I'm going to be able to
finish, but I'm going to keeplimping on for now.
That's the only thing I can donow and we'll work it out from
there.
So I thought that was reallygood.
What were your takeaways fromit?

Claire Fudge (01:02:04):
I think, definitely like you, the kind of
micro goal setting, and it'salmost like he does it without
thinking.
It's really that compoundingeffect, isn't it?
Like these tiny things have gothim to where he is.
Another thing that stood outfor me is he brought his wife
into that as well, didn't he?
In terms of you know, hispassion has always been to be on

(01:02:25):
a motorcycle.
That's what he loves.
He loves adventure.
Even after that horrendous crash, that was still where his fire
is and to go back to it eventhough he still got from his
spinal cord injury.
He still has ongoingdifficulties from that, but
that's where he loves to be, andI just thought that was really
great the way he describedactually having this support
team around you, of whichincludes his wife, his children,
his family.

(01:02:45):
It's just so important whenyou're doing sport, when you're
doing things you love, and Iguess it's that teamwork
important when you're doingsport, when you're doing things
you love, and I guess it's thatteamwork, isn't it, whether it's
your family or not, aboutworking together and enjoying
each other's passions throughthem?
So I thought that was reallylovely for him to talk about
that.

Charlie Reading (01:02:58):
I agree I was really loving and I think he
sort of said it in the sense ofyou're in a marriage and family
trying to make everyone the bestthat they can be.
It's supporting them on ontheir individual journey.
So I thought that was reallygood.
I also in terms of the microgoals thing, I nearly laughed
when he said it's like trying torun a marathon and cramping up
after 5K.
I was like, yeah, I can relateto that.

(01:03:20):
I can relate.
Two miles into the marathon inKona and I'm totally cooked.
I could relate to that.
I think that's normal two milesinto the Kona marathon, I can
tell you I was reassured whensome pros said they were blowing
up at the same point, headingout on a Lee drive and it is
about bringing it back to.
Well, okay, what can I do now?
Or I can keep plodding along,or, if I can't plod along, I'll
walk for a bit and then I'll,right next aid station, think

(01:03:42):
about that and get to there andthen keep breaking it down into
smaller chunks.
I'm reading a book at themoment.
I've only just started it, butit threw out a term which I
thought was great, which wasjust take the next step.
As long as you keep taking thenext step, you'll eventually get
there, and that's ultimatelywhat you're breaking goals,
bigger goals, down into, isn'tit?
It takes real resilience to goback into that sport when you've

(01:04:05):
had such a difficult time.

Claire Fudge (01:04:10):
Mentally, that must be challenging.
I think that ties into hispassion and his resilience,
though like it's not going tostop me.
That's actually what I lovedoing and although it's, you
know, being part of my journey,that accident I'm going back to
that place.
So I think that also says to methis real resilience and
adventure and I really got, fromthe way he was speaking today,
that adventure in him.
You could hear him talkingabout how fired up he was by
adventure.
You made a joke at thebeginning saying maybe it's not

(01:04:33):
on my list to do.
By the end of that, I want togo and do it.
Yeah, I've never ridden amotorcycle.

Charlie Reading (01:04:38):
I mean it would be amazing when he described
going up through the andes, theviews and the experience you'd
get going that far withouthaving to pedal sounds appealing
as well.
But I know what it's like toride a motorbike through muddy,
rutted fields.
I can empathize with him beingstuck in a rut when a car is
traveling at double his speedfrom you know about to take him

(01:04:59):
out, so I think I might give theDakar a miss.
There are increasinglygravel-based Ironman or
triathlon events.
I think Jan Frodeno ispromoting one for these
gravel-based triathlons at themoment and I think that they're
going to.
I can see them taking off.
So like proper wild swimming,some really off-road bike and
then some trail running in there.

(01:05:19):
It comes back to what we talkedabout with Heather Jackson,
isn't it?
I think I can see that becominga big thing.
So another inspiringconversation.
Hopefully all the listeners gotlots out of that For everyone
listening at home.
Keep on training If you want usto keep getting amazing guests
onto the Business of Endurancepodcast.
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(01:05:39):
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(01:06:02):
we hope you find to be anamazing podcast.
Thanks very much.