Australian Toby Price finishes Dakar Rally eighth stage using cable ties on tyres, places second

Australian Toby Price has stayed in the hunt for a third title despite needing to put his ‘bush mechanic’ skills to use to see him through a testing eighth stage of the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia.

The two-time motorcycle champion used tape and plastic cable ties, also known as zip ties, on his badly damaged rear tyre to see him through the 375-kilometre route from Sakaka to Neom on Monday.

He had ridden about 300 kilometres the previous stage with the large cut in his tyre.

Where riders had previously been able to swap tyres with each other, new regulations required them to use one set of tyres across the ‘marathon’ stages or face a 30-minute time penalty.

“We’ve tried to repair it, patch it up as best we could,” Price said.

“We’ve taped it…