The route for the January 1–16, 2011,
Dakar rally has been published, and much of it is desert.
Riders will travel north through
Argentina and Chile before hitting the return path, which travels for
a while along the west coast. The route will be a mix of old and new.
From the Dakar website: "For this third episode in South America, the riders, drivers and crews
will be returning to some places that have already written themselves
into the rally’s legend, such as the white dunes of Fiambala, the vast
Atacama Desert or the dizzying descent to Iquique. More particularly,
they will have the opportunity to discover five new Argentinean
provinces, come close to Bolivia and encounter the very northern tip of
Chile in Arica, at the gateway to Peru."
Rules are also evolving and will favour competitors who can read.
"In order to respect the rally-raid spirit; the rules will continue
to change in 2011, with all elite riders in the bike category obliged to
ride on a machine whose power does not exceed 450cc. Furthermore, the
GPS functions have been reduced for guidance to the WPM (way point
markers), giving priority to reading and mastering the road-book."
For more Dakar fun, see www.dakar.com.
I really enjoy watching the Dakar, and since Speed channel didn’t carry the event this past year watched the highlights, sans commercials, on the internet. One question though, isn’t 450cc a volume displacement, not a power measurement?
Interesting that they changed the location of the Dakar Rally from Europe/Africa to South America for concerns of terrorists. So why would they make public the route for 2011? Doesn’t this kinda of give a heads up to the bad guys or are terrorists allowed full disclosure like lawyers at trial?