With the Dakar route already changed for 2016 to avoid Chile, organizers have now announced they will not be traveling through Peru either.
Back in April, Dakar organizers said they wouldn’t be running through Chile in 2016; natural disasters meant the country’s leaders wanted to focus on rebuilding infrastructure, not hosting the race. Dakar organizers announced they’d travel through Peru instead.
But now, weathermen are predicting a particularly nasty El Nino ahead, and Peru’s government says they want to be prepared for potential disaster. As a result, the rally is not a priority, and Dakar won’t be headed through the country.
Dakar organizers will announce a new rally route later in September. At this point, the rally will only travel through Argentina and Bolivia, which might make it harder for them to string together spectacular dune racing; part of the attraction of the Peru route was that it allowed them to replace Chile’s dunes.
[…] they’ve had to deal with countries making a commitment to the rally, then dropping out. Both Chile and Peru pulled out of the 2016 race, and some competitors complained the rally was poorly planned as a result of the last-minute […]