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Actions Dakar’s projects
All along the year, the Actions Dakar program builds up with the grouping of villagers implied coming up with new projects. Halfway between the 2007 and 2008 editions of the Dakar, several initiatives already mentioned have witnessed an outcome, like the first actions in Mauritania.
27 new Actions Dakar selected
A session was held in April to select new Actions Dakar projects in Senegal. With a will to be efficient and consolidate what had already been done, a decision was taken to privilege for a new request village groupings that had already benefited from Actions Dakar’s program support. Indeed 27 new projects were selected: 23 in rural zones and 4 in urban places. A total of over 2000 people, mainly women and children will be concerned by these new Actions Dakar.
Actions Dakar in school zones
One of the novelties comes from the support to three schools that have the will to integrate in their educational program, a part on learning good hygiene practice and protecting the environment. It is also planned to create vegetable gardens and tree nurseries in the very heart of the school in order to train children so that they are familiar with environment friendly farming techniques (compost...) reforestation techniques (selecting young shoots, planting trees…)
Sport to protect the environment
One of the actions selected has the ambition to make the population aware of protecting the environment via the organisation of football tournaments. The teams wanting to take part in the tournament must before achieve a purification or reforestation action in their neighbourhood. During the games, awareness messages will be played out at half-time, the players’ jerseys will carry the Actions Dakar logo and streamers with educational messages will be visible by the many people that come to these sporting events.
A clean city, what a change !
To bring solutions to the problem of unhealthiness, the Actions Dakar Mauritania project has decided to help the town of Ouad Naga. For its 4 000 inhabitants, "it’s a real present" to once again witness clean streets. Still a few months ago waste was "thrown in the streets and often far away from our homes but it would always end up in front of the house of someone else, and you can’t imagine the tension that it would often create between neighbours", as explains Selemha Mint Abeïd el Barka, one of the locals.
An efficient system to collect waste
Brahim who owns a market shop tells us how satisfied he is: "it’s the first time that we can count on a permanent cleaning system for our market, you can clearly see how clean it looks. Before unhealthiness was everywhere because we would throw our waste everywhere without the slightest concern!" Before the project led by SOS SAHEL started, there wasn’t a system to collect waste. The cleaning of the city only occurred every now and again thanks to the help of the Town-hall that recruited workers that were payed in food and supplies through a system called "supplies for work", a progam that had started all over the country for quite some time. Actions Dakar made sure that all the keen households were given waste barrels placed closeby their homes against a monthly sum of 300 ouguiya (approximately 0.85 € /month). The families will indeed be able to get rid of their waste that will be collected every two days and taken directly to a final location situated 3 kilometres away from the city. Now 200 households, in other words 1200 people benefit from this regular waste collect system and the goal is to reach 400 families. The first results are significant: in Ouad Naga, at least 80% of the city is now clean.
hautParis-Dakar entertains the galleries
Invited to take part in a day focusing on adventure, approximately 50 Paris-Dakar competitors camped out in front of the Galeries Lafayette for old times’ sake.
“I felt as though I was actually living out the pictures I used to see on TV when I was a kid,” says motorcyclist Yannick Guyomarch, almost as moved as when he reached Lake Rose at the end of a hazardous rally full of mechanical and physical setbacks. The scene on Boulevard Haussman in the heart of Paris was enough to make more than one passerby stop and gawk: 20 motorcycles, 19 cars and 10 trucks just back from Dakar paraded in front of the Galeries Lafayette, which offered shoppers and the neighborhood a day based on the theme of adventure. The cool weather and proximity to Place de la Concorde vaguely recalled the days when the rally started on New Year’s Eve.
However, as percussionists thunderously pounded wooden drums and cast iron barrels, the mood was much more relaxed. That’s because most of the competitors had already successfully completed the race across the Sahara. A case in point is the motorcyclists Frédéric Villy and Julio Ano, who since January 21 have had the time to savor the accomplishment of their first Paris-Dakar. “A week after coming back I fell into a state of exhaustion that lasted almost a month,” says Julio, who nevertheless plans to compete in the event again. “I didn’t feel like doing anything, I was always tired… I’m just starting to get over it now, but I’ve already filed my application for next year’s race.” Frédéric, who has other commitments, has not. “I promised my girlfriend that if I made it to Dakar I’d marry her,” he says. “This year’s priority is my wedding, so the rally will have to wait.”
BMW driver Guerlain Chicherit, who has barely recovered from the accident that forced him to drop out of the event during the sixth stage, was also at the “adventure camp”. “My back was seriously injured,” he says. “I couldn’t do anything for a month and a half and had to have anti-inflammatory shots every day. Right now it still feels pretty sore. I have to have an MRI this week.” But the multi-talented Chicherit did not remain idle for long: he won the world extreme skiing championship for the fourth time. “When I started the first round I could barely move because of my back but I finished third, so I decided to keep on skiing despite the pain. I eventually went on to win two more rounds and the title at the end,” he says beaming, before detailing the rest of a rather active program. “Next week I’m competing in a downhill mountain-bike race in Métabief. It’s the first stage of the Enduro Series circuit. I’m going to try and accomplish something there. Then, I’ll focus on the rally-raid, hoping to compete in several rounds of the world championship before Dakar. It all depends on my physical condition and on what BMW offers me,” says Chicherit, obviously motivated by the mood at the get-together.
THE BATTLE OF BRANDS
The car, bike and truck constructors entered the Dakar well aware of the important battle of image to be won. This is what the situation looks like after the 29th edition.
Without promising its clients the thrills of drivers like Luc Alphand, Ari Vatanen or Jutta Kleinschmidt, a constructor who wins the Dakar at least guarantees a tremendous reliability to the future buyers of its vehicles. The series model that an off-road amateur might buy will only vaguely look like the one that faces the Mauritanian dunes, however the notoriety gained thanks to the performances managed remains a key image stake. In the car class, Mitsubishi, Volkswagen but also BMW invest in these ambitious research programs in order to see their technologies progress and some of them are used for their normal models. Ever since its involvement in the Dakar Japanese firm Mitsubishi seriously has an advantage over its main competitors, at least in terms of victories. This year Stéphane Peterhansel gave the brand its 12th success. On the race course, the gap has however dropped down during the 2007 Dakar. German brand Volkswagen, eager to accomplish its challenge of seeing a diesel vehicle triumph, has never been so close to beating "the reds".
NUMBER OF VICTORIES BY BRAND
- MITSUBISHI : 12 (85-92-93-97-98-01-02-03-04-05-06-07)
- CITROËN : 4 (91-94-95-96)
- PEUGEOT : 4 (87-88-89-90)
- PORSCHE : 2 (84-86)
- RANGE ROVER : 2 (79-81)
- SCHLESSER : 2 (99-2000)
- MERCEDES : 1 (83)
- RENAULT : 1 (82)
- VOLKSWAGEN : 1 (80)
Concerning the bikes, Austrian firm KTM has been dominant for several years, with a seventh consecutive victory this year thanks to Cyril Despres. Despite having overtaken BMW in the historical hierarchy, KTM however hasn’t yet managed to catch up with Yamaha whose success has a lot to do with Stephane Peterhansel’s impressive series of wins. The recent evolution of performances of the 450 cc bikes promises fierce confrontations between the riders of both brands in the future editions of the Dakar.
NUMBER OF VICTORIES BY BRAND
- YAMAHA : 9
- KTM : 7
- BMW : 6
- HONDA : 5
- CAGIVA : 2
In the truck class, the 2007 race was the scene of quite some drama with the domination of the Kamaz trucks troubled by Hans Stacey in his MAN vehicle who entered the winners list of the Dakar. In this class as well rivals momentarily in the shadow of the Russian constructor and its five consecutive successes, have hit back in 2007. Wait and see…
NUMBER OF VICTORIES BY BRAND
- KAMAZ : 7 (96-2000-02-03-04-05-06)
- TATRA : 6 (88-94-95-98-99-2001)
- MERCEDES : 5 (82-83-84-85-86)
- PERLINI : 4 (90-91-92-93)
- SONACONE : 1 (80)
- HINO : 1 (97)
- ALM/ACMAT : 1 (81)
- DAF : 1 (87)
- MAN : 1 (2007)