A corporate executive is linking his desire to fulfil a long-cherished dream to a fund-raising venture for a colleague lost in the World Trade Center disaster.

While many will be recovering from New Year's Eve hangovers come January 1, Laurence Noble will be setting off on the adventure of a lifetime - the Dakar Rallye 2003. The race begins on the first evening of the New Year in Marseille, France, and finishes on January 19 in Egypt's Sinai Desert on the shores of the Red Sea.

Personally, Noble's goal is simply to complete the gruelling 10,000 kilometre journey that takes him through Spain, then to Tunisia (crossing from Spain by boat) before continuing into Libya and Egypt. However, there is a greater ambition - to raise as much money as possible for the Rhondelle Tankard Memorial Scholarship Fund which was established by Aon in tribute to its late employee who perished in last year's terrorist attacks.

"We're going to try and raise money for Rhondelle's charity fund. The idea is to help pay for the training of young Bermudians who want to get into the insurance industry.

"People can either send in their contributions now or they can pledge an amount to be paid after the race, based on my results. They can sponsor me X amount per day that I manage to keep going or X amount per mile or kilometre," explained Noble; Aon's Vice-President of Information Technology.

Regarding his interest in the race - for which the customary course from Paris, France, to Dakar in West Africa has been altered for the 25th anniversary - the 45-year-old Englishman said he longed to participate in it since learning of the event more than 20 years ago.

"I read about it a few years after it started and it sounded like a lot of fun. I decided it was something I'd do one day. It's an expensive undertaking in money, time and preparation and it took me a while to get around to it but here I am," said the sports enthusiast who is spending $50,000 to do the race, including a $10,000 entry fee.

The Dakar Rallye will be Noble's second desert event and entrants have a choice of various motorised vehicles - motorbikes, quad (four-wheel) bikes, cars, four-wheel-drive vehicles or trucks - in which to compete. Noble will ride a Honda XR 650 motorbike in the amateur-standard production category for bikes.

In preparation for this test of stamina and determination, Noble, who rides on the local motocross circuit at Coney Island, is competing in the ongoing season and complementing that with mountain-bike cycling, working out in the gym at least three times weekly and football.

He recently attended a motocross camp in California, being put through his paces in desert riding, particularly riding in sand.

"That's the nearest place to Bermuda that has terrain similar to what we're going to be riding through."

He concurred with Bermuda's Eco-Challenge team member, Jim Butterfield, that the Island is hardly the place to train for such a rugged and challenging task.

"Bermuda is probably the worst place in the world to train for an event like this to be honest. The only good things Bermuda has are the heat and humidity because those conditions make it tougher and help your training routine.

"The fact that there's no off-road motorcycling here, except at the motocross track in the winter, is a problem and makes it very difficult to train here."

This, of course, compounds Noble's already mammoth quest to cross the rally's finish line.

"That (finishing) in itself is very difficult. On average, about 40 percent of the starters, through all the classes, make it to the finish. There is quite a big drop-out rate. That's because of the terrain you're crossing. You're in the middle of the Sahara Desert and you'll obviously have mechanical-breakdown issues. People get tired and crash because you're covering long distances every day and it's physically demanding. Lots of things can go wrong," he noted.

Still, this first-timer is thrilled at the prospect of the unknown and is not at all put off by those who think he is crazy to attempt one of the world's great races.

"I'm very excited about doing this event but I am also very nervous because I just don't know what to expect, with not having done it before. I've seen it on television and talked to people who have done it but, without actually being there, it's difficult to know how tough it will be.

"I honestly don't know what my chances are. That's one of the fun things about this - you just don't know what's going to happen. It adds to the adventure. I want to finish the course but I'm not even sure if that's realistic or not."

l Persons interested in contributing to Aon's Rhondelle Tankard Memorial Scholarship Fund can send donations to fund administrator Kate Robinson at Craig Appin House, 8 Wesley St., Hamilton, HMJX. She can also be contacted at 295-2220.