Dakar Manifest
The Dakar is a rally raid, but first and foremost, it is an incomparable human adventure.
Its history has been built in the world’s finest deserts with men and women from all horizons, taking on one of the hardest sporting challenges of our era.
A competition of extremes and an orienteering race, the Dakar brings together the leading rally raid riders and drivers, as well as amateur competitors who come to fulfil their dream, experience an adventure and meet the biggest challenge of their life on a bike, on a quad, in a car or in a truck. Over the last 40 years, each year 500 adventurers from more than 60 nationalities have come together for 15 days of a unique competition on which extraordinary feats of human endeavour are played out.
The adventure began back in 1977, when Thierry Sabine got lost on his motorbike in the Libyan desert during the Abidjan-Nice Rally. Saved from the sands in extremis, he returned to France still in thrall to this landscape and promising himself he would share his fascination with as many people as possible. He proceeded to come up with a route starting in Europe, continuing to Algiers and crossing Agadez before eventually finishing at Dakar. The founder coined a motto for his inspiration: "A challenge for those who go. A dream for those who stay behind." Courtesy of his great conviction and that modicum of madness peculiar to all great ideas, the plan quickly became a reality. Since then, the Paris-Dakar, a unique event sparked by the spirit of adventure, open to all riders and carrying a message of friendship between all men, has never failed to challenge, surprise and excite. Over the course of almost thirty years, it has generated innumerable sporting and human stories.
The Dakar is a rally-raid. It consists of one stage per day comprising at least one “special stage” per day (often several hundred kilometres), sometimes off-road, on terrain without tracks (desert, etc.). The total distance covered is several thousand kilometres. The event takes place over a period of between 10-15 days (versus two to three days for cross-country rallies).
Legend are all competitors who have participated in more than ten editions of the Dakar Rally are considered a “Legend”.
Rookie are all competitors who are participating in the Dakar Rally for the first time.
The Dakar features five categories of vehicles. The motorcycles, cars, quads, trucks, and more recently the ‘‘Side by Side” (SxS) categories have afforded their riders and crews the chance to experience an extraordinary adventure, discover breath taking scenery.
From “Factory” cars officially entered by constructors to buggy prototypes assembled in a garage by an enthusiastic amateur, the Dakar vehicles have continued to thrill generations of fans for the past 40 years.
The bivouac is a working area located between the finish time controls and the start of a stage. It is a controlled and secured closed surface area, for private use as part of the Dakar Rally, access to which is exclusively and uniquely reserved for all persons accredited by the Organizer.
