Tag: featured

Key points:

Ø  A three-times winner of the Dakar, Nasser Al-Attiyah will set off from Jeddah as the favourite with the aim of picking up the first title to be contested in Saudi Arabia.

Ø  The leader of the Toyota Gazoo Racing team will already have to overcome the not inconsiderable competition from team-mates Giniel de Villiers, Fernando Alonso and Saudi driver Yazeed Al Rajhi. However, the X-Raid team is out looking for revenge after last year and boasts a similarly impressive line-up, with Stéphane Peterhansel and Carlos Sainz in particular.

Ø  Another former winner, Joan “Nani” Roma will be behind the wheel of a Borgward, attempting to muscle in on the duel between the Toyotas and the Minis.

Jeddah, 2 Jan 2019: Nasser Al-Attiyah wins the Dakar every four years. There is no getting away from it: his name appeared on the roll of honour in 2011, again in 2015, before a third time in 2019.

However, mathematical probability is rather random on the Dakar and the Qatari driver especially appears capable of breaking the rule that would not see him earn a fourth title before 2023. The excellent performance level he displayed last January with is co-pilot Matthieu Baumel continued all throughout the season, even if they did miss out on a sixth consecutive triumph on the Rallye du Maroc.

On familiar terrain where he will be competing as a next-door neighbour, Al-Attiyah’s status as favourite is all the more credible given that the Toyota Hilux that he will be driving has reached full racing maturity. This is also naturally the case for his team-mate Giniel de Villiers, who pipped him to the post in Morocco and could demonstrate his former trademark efficiency on a Saudi Arabian route where regularity looks likely to be key, and this is precisely the South African’s hallmark.

Driving the same pick-up, Fernando Alonso will only be able to call upon very limited rally-raid experience, but his vision, driving skills and capacity to adapt put him in the position of a very promising newcomer, particularly seeing as he will have the five time winner of the Dakar on a bike Marc Coma alongside him as his co-pilot.

Designed to reward the teams who display the most endurance, navigational skill and composure, the route of the Dakar 2020 will no doubt appeal to the most experienced drivers. As such, Stéphane Peterhansel with his 13 titles will be a formidable pretender to the crown.

Even competing with Paulo Fiuza, a last minute replacement for his wife Andréa in the co-pilot’s seat, `Mr Dakar’ will still be one of Al Attiyah’s most serious rivals for overall victory. He will not be the only card that the Mini X-Raid squad can play, because Carlos Sainz will also be driving one of the German team’s tried and tested buggies and he will not be participating simply to make up the numbers. The collective strength of the X-Raid team will also be boosted by Polish driver Jakub Prygonski, who finished just short of the podium last year (4^th), and Argentinean Orly Terranova, who gave note to his rivals of his return to form by winning the Baja world cup.

Joan “Nani” Roma, another expert on the dunes, has this year taken a new direction by choosing the German constructor Borgward. The Spaniard, who was runner-up to Al-Attiyah in 2019, is counting on the progression of his vehicle to muscle in on the battle for the top places. This is also the goal for Saudi Arabia’s standard bearer Yazeed Al Rajhi, who, after his 7^th place in 2019, can lay a very legitimate claim to a better performance on a terrain which he knows like the back of his hand, the sole driver among the favourites to do so.

• Victorious in the past 18 editions, KTM returns with a trio made up of former winners: Toby Price (2019, 2016), Matthias Walkner (2018) and Sam Sunderland (2017), ready to extend the winning streak.
• However, the dramas of the last editions allow their rivals to position themselves with gusto, be it Barreda, Brabec and Benavides at Honda or Van Beveren, De Soultrait and Caimi with Yamaha.
• The vast majority of the 147 riders entered will not be in the battle for a podium result and they will above else try to finish the first Dakar in Saudi Arabia. The 40 entered in the “Original by Motul’’ category will have the added difficulty of having to maintain their bikes themselves.

Paris, 26 Dec 2019: The history of sport is made up of cycles that mark eras: the domination of football giants Real Madrid in the 1950’s, McLaren in Formula 1 in the mid-80’s, the Williams sisters in tennis at the dawn of the 21^st  Century and Mohamed Ali in the squared circle in the 60’s and 70’s, all eventually came to an end. In rally-raid, KTM’s grip on the most prestigious events began in 2001 and continues without a hitch to this day, much to the chagrin of increasingly successful rivals who are often halted in their conquest by strokes of fate. The scenario of the most recent edition is a textbook case, Toby Price having for the most part ridden his Dakar in discretion and suffering before going on to win in the final weekend. The day before the finish, he was even closely followed for the title by Husqvarna’s Pablo Quintanilla, whose hopes were dashed by a fracture a hundred kilometres from the end. And when the dust settled it was an unexpected KTM sweep of the podium. The Australian was followed by the two preceding victors Matthias Walkner and Sam Sunderland! Logically, the three champions in question, who were hampered by injury during the season, will arrive in Jeddah as the favourites. Sunderland has been the most consistent of the three after taking his first world title this year. But the status quo could certainly change during the adventure in the Saudi desert.

Pitted against the Austrian armada, the competition has never yielded to fatalism. Last January, the Honda riders posed the biggest threat, with Joan Barreda in the lead in the early days of the rally, before Ricky Brabec took over, but both eventually dropped out, leaving their Argentinean team mate, Kevin Benavides to represent the team at the sharp end of the order, and an eventual 5^th place result. At Yamaha, Adrien Van Beveren was an example of consistency and regularity, before he retired from the rally with a blown engine. His team-mate, Xavier de Soultrait, who finished 7^th in the general classification, will be back to take the fight to KTM, as will Franco Caimi, who was the highest placed finisher in the squad in the recent Rallye du Maroc (9^th).

The final round of the World Cup doesn’t necessarily have an absolute predictive value, but a quick comparative review of the winners can provide real encouragement to KTM’s opposition. In fact, in four of the last five editions, the winners of the Rallye du Maroc went on to win the Dakar three months later. This is what makes American Andrew Short, who was one of the revelations in the 2019 Dakar (6^th), a new title contender with his Husqvarna team-mate “Quintafondo”, who finished just behind him in Morocco. The Sherco and Hero teams are also podium contenders that will rely on their top-level recruits capable of giving the leaders something to think about, respectively Johnny Aubert (6^th in 2018) and Paulo Gonçalves (2^nd in 2015).