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Some lives generate respect, some people make others dream. Mohamed Yakoubi was born in the medina of Fes, 42 years ago. He loved cycling and before long turned professionnal. Rejected by the Moroccan Federation, he moved to the Cote d’Ivoire to compete in cycling contests. There he picked up every prize on offer in his field : winning the Cote d’Ivoire Championship eight times over, to give just one example. Unsurprisingly, some people became jealous of his success, to such a degree that they threatened him with death, if he didn’t stop cycling. And that’s when the unthinkable occurred. He was attacked with knives during a race. They sliced through the ligaments in his legs. Untederred, he took up running instead, before going back to Morocco to escape a civil war which was breaking out. He ran two Marathons des sables, finishing 10th and 15th. That wasn’t enough to find him a sponsor, but it did give him a taste for adventure races. He was bitten by the bug. With no one backing him for this race, he sewed his own rucksack by hand. Despite these difficult circumstances this man never loses his delightful smile. A true sportsman.…