To be more precise, in the history of comparable desert marathons, there are only two adventurers who have ever attempted such a feat. In 2004, it was Belgian trucker Roland Hoebeke in the Raid category, but he didn’t get far in the then Paris-Dakar Rally. Tomáš Tomeček, nicknamed Captain Solo, removed the navigator’s seat from his Tatra for the first time before the start of the Africa Eco Race in 2018. And he shocked the first time by finishing second behind an Iveco truck with a three-man crew led by Gerard de Rooy. He successfully completed the rally a second and third time. “This is the fourth time I’ve done it on my own this year and I’m happier from race to race. It’s freedom. The freedom of racing. This is what I love,” Tomeček confessed at the finish line at the Pink Lake. He calls his Tatra a 10-tonne bike and plans to return to Africa in five months for the 14th edition of the Africa Eco Race.

JK