Dakar 2009!

The Paris-Dakar Rally is really not a rally in the conventional sense of the word, but instead the most brutal and dangerous off-road endurance race ever conceived.  It is comprised of about 80% amateur and 20% professional lunatics prepared to absorb incredible punishment, constant pain and the ever-present chance of sudden death. Better known simply as "The Dakar," this race was first held in 1979 and ran from Paris to Dakar in Senegal.  Open to off-road vehicles including motorcycles, cars, trucks, and quads, the Dakar is  the most demanding race in the world.   The terrain these riders  face includes dunes, mud, rocks, camel grass, erg, and more.  The race is divided into stages which has them travel distances up to 500-560 excruciatingly exhausting and perilous miles in a day. It’s not only the dangers of the routes that have become a concern for Dakar participants, there have been increasing threats from political unrest and terrorism, particularly the last few years.  Finally, last year (’08)  the race had to be canceled as a result of threats of terrorist attacks.  This year, the race was moved to another continent altogether and for the first time since the Dakar began, Argentina and Chile hosted the 2009 races.

The 2009 route for the Dakar Rally included some 3,700 miles of "specials" to be traversed in 15 days, or stages, starting on Jan 3, 2009. Out of those 15 days, only one day of rest (1/10/09) was scheduled. The race course began and ended in Buenos Aires and went to Patagonia, the Andes Mountains, and the Atacama Desert, which is the world’s driest desert. Tragically, only two days into the race, 49-year old French Yamaha rider Pascal Terry, who’d always dreamed of riding in the Dakar, ran out of petrol and sometime after receiving fuel from another rider suffered an as yet unidentified medical emergency, dying before help could reach him. This was the only fatality in the ’09 Dakar race, but a sad loss for the racing community. What was especially disturbing was that Terry had activated his distress beacon on January 4th and a lack of communication between the Paris HQ and field HQ delayed the rescue efforts which may have prevented this tragedy. 

Marc Coma, riding a KTM, ended up as the winner of the motorcycle division of 2009 Dakar. At the finish, Coma said: "I can’t describe the feeling - happy doesn’t even come close…" Coma was also the winner of the 2006 Dakar. Out of 235 riders that started the motorcycle division of the Dakar, there were 109 riders that made it across the finish line.