Euromilhões Lisboa Dakar 2007 : Dakar

The reconnaissances: Day 25 - The end of the road

This is the end of our adventure, the end of the road. The 2007 Dakar is ready. After nearly a month of reconnaissance across Morocco, Mauritania, Mali and Senegal, we have gathered all the elements we need to prepare the road-book.

When we get to the beach in Dakar, the team members are smiling and proud of what they have just achieved, in spite of sheer exhaustion and the nightmare struggles encountered over the 12,000 km adventure. And also because we have completed our very own Dakar.

Before setting off for Paris, we put the finishing touches to the details for the last stage, a sort of surprise which the organisers have secretly kept for this year’s competitors who make it to Lac Rose.

This evening, we get back to our hotel for some peace, rest and civilisation. To celebrate, we enjoy a good meal by the waterside, with lobster and plenty of good humour, to ensure an excellent conclusion to this incredible African adventure. Because above all, it is this meeting with Africa which brings us here. It is a need, every year, to feel this continent move to its wild rhythm.

This is why, despite our satisfaction at finally having completed the reconnaissance, we have only one thing in mind: do it again, ASAP. May January come swiftly.

Find the files of the reconnaissances

"What’s it like, the first time?"

The rally beginners are asking themselves quite a few questions getting closer to the start of the Dakar. The Dakar training courses that welcome a part of the competitors are made to answer these questions...

To prepare the Dakar: what does that exactly mean? For most of the newcomers on the rally, the question was necessarily thought over and sometimes even turned into anguish. The most methodic competitors have a very organised timing and many get information from their elders. Whatever happens, ahead of the unknown, all need an intermediate assessement three months from the start.

The Dakar training courses, organised during the month of September are specially conceived for the beginners and allow to check out the necessities that have to be settled and the deficiencies that still have to be sorted until "D" day. Ragnar Katerbau came from the Netherlands to listen to the advice of the rally specialists during the first weekend reserved for the bikers. "I have the impression that nothing replaces experience but for a beginner the best thing is to talk about it as much as possible. And indeed after these two days I really feel confident and very motivated. Personally, I’m having problems to complete my budget but this course has also helped me think differently. Probably also because I am not the only one in this situation".

While this first approach of the Dakar universe helps to psycholgically prepare the final straigth, it is with a note book filled with a lot of practical advice that the newcomers headed back home. Stéphane Gueguen who is to start his first Dakar as the co-driver of a buggy that he is preparing with Jean-Paul Reparat, made the best of his stay at the A.S.O. building in Issy-les-Moulineaux: "I haved a few notions of navigation because I sail quite a lot on boats but I needed information on how to use a road-book and a GPS device. I was given a whole load of tricks that will be very handy on the terrain. All these things can only be given by people of experience. They are also able to help us decide what the priorities should be to finish off our preparation".

The race before the race

Less than ten days after opening race entries, the Dakar organisation was forced to close entries for the 2007 edition and had to start filtering the rush of applications...

It was only to be expected. Over the last few years, registration periods on the rally are shorter and shorter, and disappointed candidates more and more in number. The era when it was still possible to join the caravan or to replace a withdrawal from the race in December is long since a thing of the past. For the 2005 Dakar motorcycle entries were open until September; last year entries were full in July; for the 2007 edition, the maximum number of entries greatly surpassed limits within a matter of days only.

Faced with the multitude of entries, Frédéric Lequien, Head of the Competitors‘ Department, realised that difficult decisions would have to be taken. For evident reasons of safety, but also conviviality, the rally must be limited to a certain format. There will only be 240 motorcycles, 185 cars and 80 trucks at the start in Lisbon, the filtering of applications is hence inevitable: “We were expecting this rush, and I think the competitors were too, considering the speed with which their entries arrived. Consequently, we have decided to adopt a method of selection and to rigorously adhere to this method. We have tried to be as fair as possible, but at the same time we are only too aware that we are going to make some people very unhappy, in spite of the very high quality of the applications received”, explains Frédéric.

And so a select group of the Dakar sporting team was constituted, composed of no more than five people. On the programme, examination, re-examination and fine tooth combing of applications, discussion and at times debate about an application. For several days and several evenings, the work continued until an almost definite list was drawn up: “We were keen that competitors represent today’s Dakar, notably with regard to the diversity of nationalities. Of course we also took into account sporting requirements, along with the fact that the presence of new competitors is part of the rally’s spirit of open-mindedness. All of these factors are reliable and impartial, but selection is inevitably cruel for those who are not accepted”. Aware of the impact of his decision on applicants, who may have been preparing this challenge for several years, Frédéric now counts upon an exemplary reaction from competitors.