N° 039 - TEAM P.K.L
 - RODOLPHO
- Mattheis
- BRA
- 28/12/1981
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Rodolpho Mattheis: "Never give up"
Rodolpho and bikes is a sudden story that only started four year ago. As of 2003, with his father Andréas he did several rides in the middle of nature to add adrenalin to his new passion by going full blast. "We would sometimes do 1000 kilometres in a weekend between Petropolis and Campos do Jordao. We would then race it out telling each other that we would meet up later after 500 kilometres".
By riding on those tracks Rodolpho was to meat Jean de Azevedo and decided to compete in the Dos Sertoes rally. A hell of an experience that didn’t offer any great titles but a certainty after a troublesome night in the desert: "I knew that I really wanted to become a professional rider". Just over two years later, Rodolpho will show up for his first Dakar after joining the Petrobras-Lubrax team and lived a part of his dream: "for several months now, I’ve been training with Jean".
The second part of the dream remains: to reach Dakar. He knows that it’ll be a kind of Everest but he’s ready: "For two years now I’ve been competing in the Brazilian championship. During every ride that I did with my father I also had time to learn to sort out all kind of problems". He doesn’t want to think about the standings and prefers to focus on the finish: "My final standing will follow if I reach Dakar", eludes this hurried biker whose tattoo says it all: "Never give up".