Nicola Dutto Rides Again
Thirteen years and three seconds. That's how long it took motorcycle rally racer Nicola Dutto to realize his dream of competing in the 2023 Baja 1000, a point-to-point race from La Paz to Ensenada.
Those three seconds, however, were the longest of his life. On March 20, 2010, he crashed during a rally in his native Italy.
Hitting his head on a riverbed at 95 mph, Dutto shattered his spinal column from the third cervical to the last thoracic vertebra. The broken bones injured his spinal cord so severely that he became paralyzed from the abdomen down.
The now 53-year-old Italian had previously enjoyed a successful rally career. He took up the sport quite late (at the age of 19) as he was focused on skiing in his hometown of Limone Piemonte in the Italian Alps.
After discovering off-road riding, he competed in local enduro races and learned about rallies through Dakar legend Roberto Boano. Around the turn of the millennium, Baja format races (a fully signposted, long-distance off-road course of several hundred miles with no navigation) were popular in Spain.
This is where Dutto took part in his first event in 2001. He rode in the Spanish championships for six years and won two national titles in that time.
Following his success in Spain, he won two European titles in 2008 and 2009. However, the dramatic crash in spring 2010 that resulted in life-threatening injuries put an end to his third attempt.
Luckily, Dutto was treated and operated in Udine, Italy, where one of the best European clinics for back surgery is located.
The Immediate Aftermath
After waking up, Dutto realized he was numb from the chest downward. At the same time, he was delighted to find that his arms were still moving, giving him the option of moving around in a wheelchair on his own and seeing the desert in Baja California again.
He quickly understood that he could react in two ways: as a victim or as a hero. In a therapy session with the clinic's psychologist, he talked about his life before the accident and his plans to somehow remain active in the motorcycle rally scene, perhaps as a team manager or event organizer.
The therapist called his plan "denial of reality" and advised Nicola to face the new situation. She didn't recognize the fire and passion that was still burning inside him. Motorcycling had taught him how to deal with difficulties and focus his energy—it was just a new challenge.
Dutto left the room and never returned to professional therapy. From here on out, he trusted only his passion for motorcycles, his determination, and his family with his wife Elena.
While still in the hospital, Dutto organized the Summer Wheels motorbike race in fall 2010. After nine months of rehabilitation, he was finally able to return home and—thanks to his off-road experience—was able to cope quite well with his new life in a wheelchair.
Yet, the pitying looks from other people was the hardest experience for him.
‘An Incredible Joy’
During the off-road race he had organized, Dutto was able to ride in a side-by-side driven by his friend, Jarno Boano. That was enough to rekindle his passion, and he quickly made plans to take part in the Baja 1000 in fall 2011 with himself and his wife on a SxS.
That adventure ended with a broken timing belt and a night in the desert by the campfire while the others sped past. This is when Dutto came up with the idea of trying to ride a motorcycle again. He was inspired by former American supercross pro Doug Henry, who had taken up riding a motocross bike with a protective cage after a serious crash that left him paraplegic.
Over the winter, Dutto began converting the machine together with his friends—a roll bar, electric gearbox actuation, automatic clutch from Rekluse, and side support wheels. Then, in spring 2012, it was time for the first test ride on tarmac.
"At first I was shocked. It was traumatic,” Dutto told me. “But after 100 yards, I had the feeling and balance to ride without training wheels again. At that moment, the last two years were forgotten—it was an incredible joy!"
Then came the first off-road rides and, finally, together with his Spanish friend and former competitor, Julián Villarrubia, Dutto decided to take part in the Baja Aragón in Spain.
“The technical inspection in MotorLand Aragón alone was a flood of emotions. After the start of the prologue I was crying with happiness under my helmet and could barely see the track,” Dutto recalled.
“As so many people in Spain still knew me from before, the enthusiasm was enormous and many people jumped up to help me stop, for example.”
A ghost rider (Villarrubia) followed Dutto and helped him stop or lift him up again after a fall. The 24th place in the overall classification was Dutto’s reward and whetted his appetite for more. KTM offered factory support later in the fall.
A Hard Training Regime
In 2013, Dutto competed in the Ironman class at the Baja 500 in Mexico, but was unable to finish the race due to a lack of fitness on a very difficult track. After dedicated enduro training in the following summer, he made it to the finish line at the Baja 1000 under extreme hardship—it was a sad event in which his teammate Kurt Caselli was killed in an accident.
The next challenge was the Dakar in South America, for which Dutto had to qualify via the Merzouga Rally in Morocco. He succeeded, but his riding technique in the dunes was still too weak.
Two weeks of hard training in Moroccan sand made a difference, with Dutto putting his experience of skiing in deep snow into practice on a motorcycle.
The ASO had accepted the team's participation in the 2019 Dakar in South America with a total of four riders. However, they were not allowed to use a communication system, which was extremely important for Dutto.
In the dunes of Peru, the team managed five stages with almost superhuman strength before a bizarre misunderstanding with the organization led to Dutto and his supporters being disqualified from the race.
In 2020, the team completed the Africa Eco Race in Dakar. Afterward, only one thing was missing from the list—the Baja 1000 Point to Point, scheduled for 2023 with a start in La Paz and finish in Ensenada.
Baja at Last
For this race, Dutto had put together a mega team on KTMs, as the regulations allowed a maximum of six riders to take turns on a single motorcycle during the race. However, as Dutto's special bike was almost impossible for a ”normal” rider to handle, the organizers granted him an exception.
In order to be included in the classification, one bike—regardless of who was riding it—had to complete the entire route. Meanwhile, the sections on which Dutto accompanied that bike during the race were sufficient for him to count as a participant and finisher of the Baja 1000.
Team-mates Villarrubia, Ruben Saldana, Justin Boyer, and Nick Cave completed their stints alone, with Dutto joining them for more than 400 miles.
At 1 a.m. on Thursday, November 16, 2023, Dutto and Villarrubia took off from La Paz heading north. After around six miles, they loaded his machine into the van, while Villarrubia rode on to mile 200.
There, Dutto rejoined the race near Ciudad Insurgentes on the Pacific side to lead the team to mile marker 310 near Loreto on the eastern side of the peninsula. During the prerun, the crew had chosen the easiest routes for him without endless whoops.
At mile marker 600, Dutto got back on and rode 160 miles to Bahía de Los Angeles on the east coast. Finally, he rejoined the race at mile 1,200 to bring the team to the finish line after 1,310 miles and 39 hours on November 17.
Out of 335 teams (car, SxS, and motorcycle combined), Dutto’s team finished 79th overall and fourth in the Pro Moto 30 motorcycle class. Only 132 teams reached the finish line in Ensenada in the specified 50 hours.
After 13 years and three seconds, a long-held dream had finally come true for Nicola Dutto.