Dakar – Route and challenges of the Dakar motorcycle 2015 –

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Route and challenges of the Dakar motorcycle 2015

Dakar - Route and challenges of the Dakar motorcycle 2015 -

As every year since 2009, the port of Le Havre (76) was transformed this weekend into a huge logistics platform dedicated to rally-raid, with a total of 645 vehicles assembled to carry out technical and administrative checks before boarding. to Argentina, from where the 37th edition of the Dakar will start …

As every year since 2009, the port of Le Havre (76) was transformed this weekend into a huge logistics platform dedicated to rally-raid, with a total of 645 vehicles assembled to carry out technical and administrative checks before boarding. to Argentina, where the 37th edition of the Dakar will start on January 4, 2015.

Put end to end, these hundreds of cars, trucks, motorcycles and quads prepared for the "king of rallies" represented a line of 4.6 km.

For 48 hours, nearly 150 people scrupulously checked each vehicle before boarding a specific cargo ship some 200 meters long scheduled for the weekend..

This giant boat named "Grande Amburgo" will land 21 days later near Buenos Aires (Argentina), where the Dakar 2015 competitors will be able to collect their racing car on New Year’s Eve to line up for the start four days later. : tight timing that leaves no room for guesswork !

The Dakar 2015 route

Departure on January 4 from Buenos Aires, arrival on January 17 in Buenos Aires: the Dakar 2015 returns for its seventh edition organized in South America with a "loop" route. A specificity applied in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Composed of more than 9000 km of roads and tracks through Argentina, Chile and Bolivia, this new course will also (even more) focus on the management of effort and mechanics, since even more "marathon stages" are on the program. 

During these portions, each rider is left to himself for two days, without his technical assistance to troubleshoot a possible mechanical problem: the more resourceful riders will make the difference, but also the most reliable and best prepared motorcycles..

To make it possible to organize marathon stages in good conditions, a new device will be put in place during the passage to Iquique, famous for its sumptuous descent of the "toboggan" type over more than 2 km with more than 30 degrees of tilt !

During this stage located halfway through, the competitors of the different categories will be separated and their races will take place alternately, on different routes. Logistics that requires postponing the rest day, scheduled for January 10 for motorcycles and quads and January 12 for cars and trucks. 

Dakar 2015: the challenges 

In the motorcycle category, Marc Coma on his official KTM acts as the longest favorite, the defending champion and the Austrian brand having all the cards to win on paper. Coma has unparalleled speed, experience and navigational skill, while his bike is fast and reliable whatever the conditions..

Cyril Despres, one of his main rivals, having also chosen to shorten his time at Yamaha to try a retraining in the, the royal road seems therefore to open before the Catalan Marc Coma for this 37 edition….

Except that the competition has sharpened, especially on the side of the with three cracks capable of giving it a lot of trouble: Joan Barreda, Helder Rodrigues and Paolo Gonçalves, all three at the controls of a constantly growing CRF Rally.

The three HRC riders will be accompanied at Honda by the Chilean Jeremias Israel and the (over) gifted Spanish Laia Sanz (read). At Yamaha, Olivier Pain (3rd in 2014) intends to climb at least one step in the hierarchy, aided in this by the improved performance of the new WR450F Rally.

Mickaël Metge is for his part renewed alongside the French and the Italian Alessandro Botturi joins the Blues, while the Spanish Juan Pedrero will take a WRF450 in his colors.

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