DAKAR RALLY PREVIEW - A showdown in the sand!
By TMX Archives on 22nd Dec 06
THE 29th Dakar Rally starts in Lisbon on Saturday, January 6, and finishes in the Senegalese capital of Dakar on Sunday, January 21. Once again, the world's most difficult cross-country rally will be dominated by Austrian manufacturer KTM, while defending champion Marc Coma and former champion Cyril Despres are obvious favourites for victory.
The Dakar has not benefited from positive press in recent years – Fabrizio Meoni lost his life two years ago in a tragic accident in Mauritania and Australian Andy Caldicott was another fatality last January. But riders are aware of the risks in the world's greatest off-road adventure and the entry was over-subscribed as far back as July, with 250 bikes, 182 cars and 88 trucks set for a desert showdown this next January.
Spaniard Marc Coma is the clear favourite for victory. Rival Despres has not been able to find his previous form this season in FIM Cross-Country rallies and the Spaniard appears to gain in mental and physical strength with every event he contests. Despres has suffered the loss of three team-mates in the space of four years and was visibly shaken by the recent loss of a close friend in a skiing tragedy. His positive mental attitude is never in doubt, but the result of the Dakar may come down to which rider is more determined on the day.
But the nature of the Dakar means it is never just a two-bike race. American Chris Blais has been improving on each race for the Red Bull KTM USA team and is capable of upsetting the Franco-Spanish strangle-hold on the Dakar and become the first major American winner of a major international cross-country rally since Jimmy Lewis won the UAE Desert Challenge with BMW in 2000.
David Casteu is the newly-crowned FIM Cross-Country World Champion and will partner Cyril Despres in the Gauloises-KTM team, alongside the Dutchman Hans Verhoeven and Spaniard Isidre Esteve Pujol. Coma has veteran Italian Giovanni Sala and Spaniard Jordi Viladoms as sidekicks in KTM Repsol colours.
There are fewer British riders on the 2007 Dakar Rally than last year. Scotland fields Robbie Allan on a Honda Europe-backed bike, alongside experienced Dakar competitor Mike Extance.
Colin Askey returns as a privateer on a KTM, Paul Broome fields a Honda as part of the Theodore Off-Road Assault Team and David Dickinson represents the Desert Rose operation that is often to be seen on rallies in Morocco and Tunisia. Stephane Malone wheels out a KTM under the Proseal Edmonson banner and Ian Myers rides a privately-funded KTM under the MTS Motorcycles banner.
For full story see T+MX NEWS, Friday, December 22, 2006