It’s winter in Ohio, and for many of us, that means the beginning stages of Parked Motorcycle Syndrome. Fortunately, the New Year opens with another edition of the Dakar Rally. For 2024, the Dakar rally will be a 14 day, 12 stage, ~5,000 mile adventurous rally race across the Saudi Arabian desert.

What is Dakar?

Originally the named the “Paris to Dakar” rally, the Dakar is a “rally raid” event and brainchild of Thierry Sabine. In 1975, Sabine was competing in the “Cote-Cote” rally where he was subsequently lost in the Tenere desert for 3 days. After which, Theirry decided that the desert would be an ideal location to host an annual rally. In 1978 the first rally was held, leaving Paris, France and ending in Dakar, Senegal. 182 vehicles showed for the first iteration of the grueling event, with only 74 finishing the 6,200 mile test of endurance. For 2024, the Dakar Rally expects to host over 750 competitors, including 137 motorcycles.

What’s a Rally Raid?

“Rally Raid” or cross-country rallying is a type of off-road racing that typically takes place on an unmarked course where the participants race from start to finish, never traversing the same terrain twice. Navigation is typically the defining factor of rallying, since the course is not marked, the racers must ride as fast as they can, while still reading their road books or following their GPS depending on the event. Dakar in particular has been known for its road book navigation, which has changed dramatically in recent years. In addition, rally races often use portions of public roads to connect offroad sections. Rallies like Dakar may be 5,000 miles, but only portions of that distance are off-road. Road sections are often called “liaison” sections, where riders must arrive at the start point for the off-road “special” at a certain time, but while on the liaison sections riders are not timed to avoid problems with local traffic and speeding.

What’s a Road Book?

Road books, “roll charts”, or “scrolls” are paper maps, often “rolled” through a roadbook holder that shows the rider navigation information, one block at a time. The roll chart contains blocks of information that show distance, direction, hazards, intersections, and indication of the course direction based on this information. Riders progress the road book as they pass various milestones by rolling up to the next navigation note. You can buy a simple manual roll chart holder for your dirt bike, but pro rally racers usually have a “rally tower” on the front of their bikes that hold the roadbook (along with various other navigation and safety equipment) and progress the roll chart by pressing a button the handlebars.

What makes Dakar special?

There are a number of prestigious and well-established rally races around the world, but most competitors recognize the Dakar rally as the most challenging. Most years, the Dakar rally has no less than 10 days of racing; often with a single “rest” day in the middle. Riders and their teams must prepare their machines & themselves to compete at the highest level, traversing off-road timed-special sections in excess of 200 miles each day, for nearly two-weeks. In Dakar there are time penalties for speeding, engine swaps, missing waypoints, among others, meaning that precision and efficiency are every bit as important as speed. In recent years, Dakar also includes a two-day “Marathon” stage, where riders are responsible for all routine maintenance on their machines. They may receive assistance from other competitors, but their team and mechanics are barred from helping the riders fix anything broken or in need of service on their bikes.

Most of the front runners are sponsored riders by factory teams like Honda and KTM, but the Dakar has a special class they call “Malle Moto” that harkens back to the roots of the rally. “Malle” is French word for “case”, essentially a tote of personal belongings, tools, and spare parts, which is all the Malle Moto riders get besides a tent and their bike. Malle Moto riders are the hardest of competitors, racing hundreds of mile each day, working on their bike all evening, then getting as much sleep as possible before the process begins the next day. Many Malle Moto competitors only get around 4 hours of rest each night aside from the rest day. Sleep deprivation is a big deal for all competitors during the two week event, and especially for these unsupported competitors.

I would be remiss to mention, race direction works very hard to make the even safer each year. Unfortunately, multiple competitors are injured each year at Dakar, and more regrettably, the rally has claimed the lives of various competitors over the years. Unknown rugged terrain, sleep deprivation, marathon stages and more make for the ultimate endurance challenge.

How do I fallow the Dakar?

The Dakar rally is returning to Saudi Arabia again in 2024, which means that the race is 8 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time in the U.S. Most days the special sections are wrapping up by the time the sun rises on the east coast, so you can typically check the results on Dakar.com in the morning to see how the day went. Dakar also has an app you can download on your phone if you prefer mobile. The Dakar YouTube channel will feature recaps and highlight reels almost every evening. The sports networks may drop the occasional update video, but if you want to see some of the best coverage, download Red Bull TV on your smart TV or cell phone. Red Bull’s “Dakar Daily” as they call it, is ~20 minute recap of each day’s racing, featuring epic video of the action and scenery, along with racer interviews as they paint the best picture possible of what it’s like to be at the rally. There are also a couple Podcasts out there that do  a great job of covering the action each day, occasionally getting interviews directly from the competitors.

This year Americans Ricky Brabec and Skyler Howes will be racing for Monster Energy Honda likely near the front of that pack, but be sure to keep an eye on Aussie Toby Price and German Matias Walkner racing for KTM, along with Brit Sam Sunderland and his Aussie partner Daniel Sanders on the GasGas rally bikes, with last year’s winner, Argentinian Luciano Benavides is riding for Husqvarna. Also be sure to keep an eye out for for announcements from the American Rally Original team if you’re looking to follow more U.S. competitors in this year’s event.

This year’s Dakar Rally starts Friday, January 5th. If you’ve not tuned in to follow the rally in the past, here’s your next chance.