Dakar 2024 5 to 19 January 2024

[Omega Man]

As The Dakar Rally was just mentioned in another thread, figured a post would remind those interested....

The rally's fifth edition in Saudi Arabia will be held from 5 to 19 January 2024, starting in the thousand-year-old city of AlUla, crossing the country in the direction of the Empty Quarter and finishing in Yanbu on the shores of the Red Sea.



The course-

Let's hope the race goes well and tragedies of past races can be avoided.

Official site here- https://www.dakar.com/en/

OM

 

[skibum69]

The best place to keep up with the Dakar is on the ADVrider F5irehose which has been the #1 location for the most up to date rally info for years now.

Check it out:
https://www.advrider.com/f/threads/2024-dakar-rally-f5-coverage-the-24-hour-live-who-what-where-and-why-not-f5irehose.1682567/

 

[jgoertz]

Dakar summary sessions are being shown on PeacockTV for those who have this streaming service. As of today, two sessions are available for viewing.

 

[Voni]

Compared to back in the 80's when Paul and I would rush home from work to watch the half hour of coverage, now there is, as skibum69 said, a firehose of information.
And 19 different categories of competitions going on.

Still love it and watch lots on YouTube. Free to all of us!

And still go to ADV for the real stream!

Voni
sMiling

 

[skibum69]

It's been pretty wild first 3 days. A couple of pros out and some other drama. Good spectating.

 

[HSVPhil]

Compared to back in the 80's when Paul and I would rush home from work to watch the half hour of coverage, now there is, as skibum69 said, a firehose of information.
And 19 different categories of competitions going on.

Still love it and watch lots on YouTube. Free to all of us!

And still go to ADV for the real stream!

Voni
sMiling

Thanx for the memory Jog to keep up with the younger generation!
Ciao, HSV-Phil & HSV-Karen 🗺+🏍+🏕+=&

 

[skibum69]

Mason Klein on the Kove bike has been the #1 topic of conversation. Stage 1 he started first and led the stage right to the end which is pretty amazing at 22 years old in his 2nd Dakar. From there he's had a few mechanicals but is still cruising along but now at a more sedate pace. Pretty amazing result for a brand new bike that is only running in it's 2 year and Mason is on a brand new motor. The whole F5 crowd is cheering for him to make the finish.

Only 2 women in the main bikes this year, Jane Daniels who is the current World Enduro champ and Yael Kadshai running 51 and 58 place respectively.

Anja Van Loon is running her all women team in the trucks and she is up to 13th place which is also pretty amazing. But there are no Russians in the Dakar now crushing the competition with their Kamaz.

The front runners are flat out keeping the suspense high.

 

[Omega Man]

Mason Klein on the Kove bike has been the #1 topic of conversation. Stage 1 he started first and led the stage right to the end which is pretty amazing at 22 years old in his 2nd Dakar. From there he's had a few mechanicals but is still cruising along but now at a more sedate pace. Pretty amazing result for a brand new bike that is only running in it's 2 year and Mason is on a brand new motor. The whole F5 crowd is cheering for him to make the finish.

Only 2 women in the main bikes this year, Jane Daniels who is the current World Enduro champ and Yael Kadshai running 51 and 58 place respectively.

Anja Van Loon is running her all women team in the trucks and she is up to 13th place which is also pretty amazing. But there are no Russians in the Dakar now crushing the competition with their Kamaz.

The front runners are flat out keeping the suspense high.

Nice report.

OM

 

[skibum69]

Top 3 riders only a 5 minute gap then 20 minute gap to 4th extending to 40 minute gap to 10th. Pretty much anyone in the top 15 has the skills to win a stage and the caliber of the top riders now means the pace is blistering right from the start.

This is an excellent take on what the Dakar is now by keepshoveling on ADV.

Agree completely on not being that far back by choice. 10 minutes back? No worries. 40? It’s not that your race is over but you’ll need some serious luck to win. And you’ll need to push, taking more and more risks that make the probability of success lower vs the folks ahead of you.

I’ve posted about this before but I think the race has fundamentally changed from the days of the aliens and riders need to be a little cautious about thinking that the race starts on the rest day.

1. everyone is so ****ing fast. I know you know that, but let’s just take a second while I reiterate. So. ****ing. Fast. There is nobody who is faster enough that they can play little navigation tricks on their competitors or relax for a while and then just #gasalaburro to easily make up time. The closest I’ve seen to just otherworldly speed is Sanders and we’ll get to that…

2. navigation training is constantly getting better. Sure, roadbooks are still tough to read, but when I think of even five or six years ago (and keep me honest here), there used to be riders like bam bam who were fast but couldn’t navigate as well (or TP who, I think, is better at it than he was when he started and still ludicrous speed). Now he’s been replaced by Benavides who’s fast and can navigate. So you can’t rely on your navigation and other folks in front missing a trick and then making up huge chunks of time on them that way. You also can’t rely on making up as much time on someone leading out because now the relative disadvantage of leading out has been partially offset by navigation skill.

3. Bonus time upfront further offsets the disadvantage of leading out. This means that while it’s still possible to make up time on the leader, we’re not seeing the same snakes and ladders game we had previously.

4. This is all universally true. Nobody is slow. Nobody is bad at navigation.

So, what result? Everything is constantly on the edge. The difference between taking it slow one day and going all out must get much smaller - if you want to compete then your easy days have to be 98% instead of 90 or 95%. As folks have said, that means more mechanicals and more crashes. Maybe they’re not all big, but they all make a difference.

It is still an endurance race but with the entire top field capable of a win with a bit of luck and the entire field racing at blistering pace from day one, any single rider has to push harder every day to win. And while that means that any single rider is more likely to DNF than in prior years, it also means that because all of them are doing it one will probably get lucky and win. You’ve got 10-15 guys who are amazing and of those one is going to consistently miss the camel grass, guess right on nav and manage to get to the bivouac just before something breaks. And compared to someone racing conservatively for the first half, that’s the one that will win. Which one? No idea. But one of them.

There is still strategy and skill involved in winning and the work and effort put in are still an important part of the race but within the field of possible winners, everyone is getting pushed to the bleeding edge and luck plays a more important factor than ever.

If I’m looking at the standings today, I think you can still win if you’re 35 minutes back, but it will now require the two guys who are 32 minutes back, the two who are 20-22 minutes back, the one 5 back, the one 1 back and the leader all to be unlucky in a fairly substantial way because I don’t think that Toby Price (or any of these guys) are 35 minutes faster than any of the others just on their own talent. It’s now too close and they’re riding so close to the edge that it’s just not possible for any one rider to be that much better than the field.

It’s still an endurance race but the entire field is so competitive that they’re now operating at as close to a sprint over the entirety of the race as they possibly can.

 

[lee]

The best place to keep up with the Dakar is on the ADVrider F5irehose which has been the #1 location for the most up to date rally info for years now.

Check it out:
https://www.advrider.com/f/threads/2024-dakar-rally-f5-coverage-the-24-hour-live-who-what-where-and-why-not-f5irehose.1682567/

2,545 posts so far. Is there a Readers Digest Version?

 

[skibum69]

A number of years ago that thread was 3 times as busy and there was a Coles Notes thread alongside. Now it is much more manageable. I think I have managed to keep up on every post for the last 10 years!

 

[skibum69]

It's been closely contested this year! The speed and caliber of the top 1 is incredible. It used to be a person could make up 10 minutes in the 2nd half but now it's almost impossible to get ahead of the competition. Tomorrow is stage 10 for 371 km's of stage racing. Fingers crossed for Ross Branch of Hero. Ricky Brace is in the lead for Honda trying for his 2nd win. Toby Price is 30 minutes back which he'll never gain unless the front runners make serious mistakes. KTM doesn't look like it will even be on the podium this year which is pretty wild.