Monmouth’s very own social media superstar has had two big wins in the Motorbike TV People awards.

Vanessa Ruck - also known as The Girl On A Bike - has truly proven herself to be a rising star in the motorcycle world - beating biking colossus, Itchy Boots, a Youtube channel with near one million subscribers and nearly 147 million views. Vanessa is no nobody, with over 17,000 subscribers and totalling over 1.6 million views on her Youtube videos.

She placed first in two categories, best social media channel and the most inspirational rider. Those following Vanessa’s career will be familiar with her inspirational story of resilience and determination; she describes herself as just a normal girl who grew up in Kent. After being hit by a car while cycling in 2014, Vanessa’s world was turned upside down, resulting in seven surgeries and a rollercoaster of mental and physical recovery spanning seven years. Through her recovery she discovered motorcycles, becoming known as The Girl On A Bike.

Last month, Vanessa released a video on her channel, which shows her preparing and participating in her first ever rally in Qatar. Put on my the Qatar Motor and Motorsports Asscociation, Vanessa teamed up with Desert Road Racing who helped kit her out with a Beta 430rr motorbike. It was her first road book navigation and her first desert rally - and doing it whilst recovering from a shoulder injury.

Her F2R nav tower can be seen mounted on the handlebars, allowing Vanessa to keep track of her route using a paper scroll, as well as her odometre to keep track of milage.

One of the challenges Vanessa had to overcome was the heat under the Qatar sun. She reported the temprature as 33 degrees celcius as she arrive at 10.30pm.

As the event is a FIM (Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme) event, health and safety is taken seriously and as such Vanessa has also been fitted out with a GPS which allows the race team to find her quickly if she were to ride off the track, aditionally, medics and firetrucks are ready when needed.

Kitted out in boots, knee braces, impact shorts, liat jacket and Gopro video camera; Vanessa started off with a reconansance run of the course. She rides over to the course with her team before ’going into the wilderness’. Navigating a course amongst sand dunes as far as the eye can see, Vanessa and her team develop her strategy and become familiar with the envrionment.

She said: "That was my first time in the desert following a road book - amazing learning curve and I’d say it was a pretty emotional rollarcoaster. I think there are actually moments actually on the ride out before we even got off road where I was so hot that I didn’t know what I was doing - why am I doing this? - is this actually fun? And once we actually got into what we’re actually here to do - oh my goodness that was amazing - I’ve got the bug - tomorrow, bring it on!"

Vanessa then had a qualifying lap, powering through an intense wave of nerves.

She said: "I actually really enjoyed it, I didn’t get lost. Oh man, the anxiety and nerves are so ridiculous because they are all consuming."

During the day one afternoon stage, Vanessa timed-out after accidentially leaving the course. Undeterred she recooperated and after day two won second prize in the woman’s category.