Euromilhões Lisboa - Dakar 2007 : Dakar

Everybody wants a piece of the action

On the second day of technical and administrative scrutineering, the Belem Cultural Centre became a veritable hive of autograph hunters, amateur video enthusiasts and all sorts of inquiring minds, keen on discovering the vehicles and talking to the challengers in the quest to win the 29th edition of the Dakar.

Mid-morning saw the red cars that have dominated the rally without fail since 2001 hogging all the attention. There are only winners in the Mitsubishi family: Roma, Masuoka, Peterhansel and Alphand have all won the Dakar, the former skier being the most recent to do so. Alphand, with his well trimmed goatee beard and lean silhouette, has already tasted victory on the sand: "I’m the favourite and I believe I’ve improved even more since last year", he stated, without trying to provoke. Nonetheless, his team-mates all have serious ambitions of picking up the title and theoretically no strategic constraints to respect: Masuoka is celebrating 20 years on the Dakar, Peter is attempting to re-conquer it and Roma wants to honour the memory of Henri Magne, his co-pilot who died during the Morocco rally. As they say in Japan, too much of something can never be bad…

The same can be said of Volkswagen, who have secured the services of the category’s record holder for the number of victories, Ari Vatanen. However, the Finn is not so bold as to claim he is the lead driver for the German team, who are counting as much on the rise and rise of Giniel De Villiers over the last four years as on the efficiency of Carlos Sainz, winner of four stages during his first participation in 2006. "I’m better prepared this time", the Spaniard soberly declared.

The verbal sparring began a little later in the day for the motorbike category, with the almost simultaneous appearance of the KTM Gauloises and KTM Repsol teams. The last two title-holders, Cyril Despres and Marc Coma, clearly identified as the two favourites for the rally, inadvertently echoed each other in front of the microphones and cameras. "Everyone will start from scratch", declared the leader of the blue team, whereas Coma, world champion of the discipline, is also ready for battle: "I can’t wait to get stuck in".

After the parade of the race’s major favourites, the last day will be consecrated to the outsiders: Jean-Louis Schlesser with a new buggy that he designed himself as well as the BMW X-Raid team led by Jutta Kleinschmidt, Guerlain Chicherit and Nasser Al Attiyah.