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Dakar 2022 It's starting! January 1st - 14th.

Omega Man

Fortis Fortuna Adiuvat
Staff member
After another weird year it's time to mess with the desert.

Yeah, it isn't the same as the long Paris to Dakar but it is still entertaining along with views of some superbly equipped machines and tough buggers running them.

The route-

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The website- https://www.dakar.com/en/

Usually on NBCSN for a half hour in the evenings (est). I haven't see a listing yet.

OM
 
TV coverage is on the Olympic Channel. It looks like each stage will get one hour of coverage instead of NBCSN's 30 minutes. The first broadcast is January 2 at 8:00 PM EST.
 
Coverage is also available on Peacock (an NBC streaming channel) and on Red Bull TV. Check the Check the OFFICIAL BROADCASTERS link on the rally's web page.
 
Coverage is also available on Peacock (an NBC streaming channel) and on Red Bull TV. Check the Check the OFFICIAL BROADCASTERS link on the rally's web page.

I wish some semblance of normal TV might offer these oddball, off the wall offerings. Alas, we are too few, too poor, to be an attractive viewership. We shall need to see highlights and suffer in silence.
 
You would think with an American winning it last year that someone in North American TV would be getting us some coverage over here? Since it's moved to Saudi Arabia I've had a hard time keeping up with my annual throwing a few $$ to privateers. Maybe I should start again? I need a new t-shirt or two. There has been talk of adding more countries to the route but we've yet to see it.
 
YouTube is your friend.

Long ago in a state far way the tapes of the DAKAR helped Paul and I make it through the dark cold January days in Kansas.

Voni
sMiling now. 80 degrees today in the Big Bend of Texas
 
:scratch
Here in the northeast (Comcast/Xfinity) the Dakar has been televised on NBCSN through the years. A check this morning shows a 24/7 notification that ā€œPremier League, NASCAR, Olympics are headed to the USA network starting January 1st.
NBCSN Sports are moving to USA Networkā€.
Not sure how or why this change is going to help.
OM
 
I had to use my grid guide to find it. For my provider, it's on the Olympic (OLYC) channel. First showing for me is Jan 2 at 7:00pm. It's an hour long...in the past it was only 30 minutes. Maybe the following stages will be limited to 30 minutes of coverage.
 
Search for it on YouTube. There are lots of news sources there.

I'm intrigued by the Dakar Classic running at the same time.

Voni
sMiling[/SUP]
 
One thing I've never understood or been exposed to is the navigation they have to do with the road books and how they can pick their way through such a featureless landscape at the speeds they run. I realize it's not truly featureless, but from the glimpse I've seen, they're not being told to turn left at the third mountain or anything like that. Looks like the navigation is speed over some given distance, then make a turn or veer one way or the other. It was weird that so many people got lost on the first day, some for around an hour. :scratch
 
Ok, here's a little info. This is a page of the roadbook from the Rally Mongolia. Funny as it's written in English by Japanese organizers. There were a few funny translations such as warnings for "clacks" meaning "cracks" which were actually washouts. You learn to understand the lexicon for what it is despite language. You can see the ICO on top left which is your adjustable ODO that you have to keep in sync with your roadbook. The GPS is only for CAP heading which is your compass direction as you can see on the roadbook. If you get lost you have to go back to your last known location and reset the ODO to match the roadbook. I could navigate ok up to about 80 kmh but faster than that I was making mistakes and getting off track. The competence of the pros running over 100 MPH and navigating is insane. The roadbooks this year are far more complex with crap in there.
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What you saw of folks getting lost was a dodgy tulip, (the middle symbol on the roadbook), in the roadbook that had them lost looking for a waypoint. Most of them wasted time looking for it while a few sensible ones skipped it and took the 10 min penalty instead of wandering for an hour. There is a very high level of strategy played at the pointy end of this game.

I for one am following every day and I have just started getting up at 02:00 to follow in real time. As I said the ADV thread is the #1 place to see what's up in real time but the focus is mostly bikes. My friend Teruhito Sugawara is the factory Hino driver and this year they have a brand new hybrid truck with 1000HP of combined power. Pretty incredible stuff to watch if you like that kind of thing. This year for the first time there are 4 or 5 Americans in the top 10 if any of you care.
 
Stage 6 today was shut down mid stage. This stage was following the same track that the cars and trucks ran yesterday. Early reports claim the cancellation was because the route was impassable because of the earlier car/truck traffic and recent rains. Tell that to the first 9 guys that made it to the finish before cancellation. Definitely a bit of drama here.

AngryPete on ADV has his pirate radio station getting some super knowledgeable folks on talking about the rally. Well worth the listen.
https://mixlr.com/angry-pete/showreel/f5-pirate-dakar-podcast-riyadh-secret-mytery-tour-part-ii
 
I guess it's all over! I'm really disappointed in the coverage by the Olympic Channel. I put the airings on series-record on my DVR, but for some reason I never got to see about 3 of the stages. I never saw Stage 2 (was it canceled due to rain???) and then two more after the rest day. Stage 11 was never recorded...or aired as far as I can tell. Maybe the channel kept bouncing the air times around...but the DVR is supposed to keep up with that per the grid. Oh well, there's next year!
 
Pretty brutal trying to find good coverage. The Red Bull channel does good reports and most say noe of the big French channels is very good. A few people were surprised at how good the Dakar channel was this year too. Personally I get 99% of my info on the ADV F5irehose and watch the odd videos that get posted on there. There truly is no better place to keep up on what's happening in the rally if you want to know about the bikes. This year was pretty much a nail biter right to the end. Congrats to Sam Sunderland for taking the win and Congrats to Bam Bam for not crashing himself out before the end.
 
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