A motorbike rider is hoping to become a rally champion when she sets off across the sand dunes of the Sahara desert later this month.

Tamsin Jones 34, is ready to travel with her Yamaha 450 WRs to Tunisia, in north Africa, to take part in the 14-day El chott Rally.

She said: "I can't wait. It is part of an enduro desert rally championship and I came second in Germany so I might win the champion- ship."

Miss Jones, who lives and works in Oxford, has already spent a month preparing her bike for the tough conditions that she will face in Tunisia.

She said: "You have got to ride well within your limits because it is all about navigation and safety. You have got to look after the bike.

"A lot of people fail because they get lost or the bike breaks down, rather than because of how fast they ride."

It is not the first enduro desert rally that Miss Jones has taken part in.

Earlier this year she was the third woman to cross the finish line in a one-day rally in Qatar, and came second in a rally in Morocco.

She hopes to travel to competitions in Libya and Brazil next year, before taking on the biggest race of all - the Dakar rally.

Miss Jones, who started off downhill mountain bike riding, said: "The Dakar is the ultimate, and it is going to take a lot of work to get the sponsorship together."

She has already received support from two Oxfordshire businesses, Abingdon-based Lee Peck Engineering and Oxford fitness firm Time2be, but needs more help to make the dream a reality.

She said: "I am trying to look for sponsorship over the next couple of years."

Fiddling with bike engines is not just a pastime for Miss Jones, but also part of her work as manager of Trax, the youth motor project based in Osney Mead, Oxford.

It takes young people from all over Oxfordshire and gives them training in motor maintenance and the chance to try out racing and rally driving.

Unsurprisingly, the children who attend the project are suitably impressed with Miss Jones' rally career.

She said: "They think it is brilliant. We have now got a girls' group at Trax, and they entered a youth enduro in Wales and all completed it.

"That is a really tough race for their first race, so they did really well."