Everything about the 2020 Dakar Rally edition
The 5 will start on January 41th edition of the Dakar Rally. From its inception in 1979, the competition took place on the African continent until the terrorist threat arose in 2008 and ASO was forced to look elsewhere. From 2009 to this year, the competition was held in South America and visited countries such as Argentina, Chile, Peru and Bolivia. Next year the caravan will travel to Saudi Arabia and start a new chapter of the illustrious competition.
The competition starts in the port city of Jeddah. No less than 9000 km have to be driven in 12 stages, which will mainly contain a lot of sand and dunes. For example, the famous Rub Al Khali desert will be visited in Oman. On January 17, the mother of all rallies ends in Qiddiya. During this last stage, an electric motorcycle from the Tacita brand will participate. This is to promote a new category “electric Rally Motor” from 2021.
Last year, Australian Toby Price won the race aboard a KTM. Second and third place also belonged to the same team with Matthias Walkner and Sam Sunderland. It was the 18 by the wayde consecutive victory for KTM making them the most successful brand in this competition. The Austrians are investing heavily in the Dakar and will again leave nothing to chance from January 5. However, the competition is tough because both Honda and Yamaha have been trying to break KTM's hegemony for years. The Japanese are getting extra resistance from Austria because Husqvarna has also been active in rallying for several years.
No Belgians on the motorcycle
In addition to the three desert foxes mentioned above, Pablo Quintanilla (Husqvarna), Kevin Benavides (Honda), Andrew Short (Husqvarna) and Xavier De Soultrait (Yamaha) can also be counted among the favorites. Moreover, we cannot forget Adrien Van Beveren and Paulo Gancalves. The Dakar is treacherous and every day something can go wrong that could upset the rankings. For the ladies, we look forward to Laia Sanz, who with her experience left many men behind in the rankings. On January 5, it will be the tenth time that she participates in the Dakar rally. She does this on board the Spanish brand GasGas, recently acquired by KTM. We are also looking forward to ex-motocrosser and enduro rider Johnny Aubert, who finished 2018th in 6.
No Belgians are registered for the motorcycles this time. From the Netherlands, seven sand hares leave for Jeddah. These are Paul Spierings, Edwin Straver, Mirjam Pol, Guillaume Martens, Olaf Harmsen, Martien Jimmink and Gerben Lieverdink. Wesley Pittens had to cancel after an injury he sustained in December. There are no lowlanders on the list of participants for the quads. You can view the full list of participants here .
The internships
- 05/01 Jeddah - Al Wajh
- 06/01 Al Wajh - Neom
- 07/01 Neom - Neom
- 08/01 Neom – Al-`Ula
- 09/01 Al-`Ula – Ha'il
- 10/01 Ha'il – Ryadh
- 11/01 Rest day
- 12/01 Riyadh - Wadi Al Dawasir
- 13/01 Wadi Al Dawasir – Wadi Al Dawasir
- 14/01 Wadi Al Dawasir – Haradh
- 15/01 Haradh - Shubaytah
- 16/01 Shubaytah - Haradh
- 17/01 Haradh – Qiddiya
Where to follow?
We follow the Dakar Rally closely, so you will receive an update of each stage every day here on MXMag. Of course you can also visit the website of the rally and you can perfectly follow the live timing of each category. This is the link, you can see the live timing at the bottom right of your screen. As before, Eurosport will broadcast a summary on TV every evening.
Photo: Dakar.com
Text: Danny Hermans
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