2007 Dakar Rally Gauoises 690

2007 Dakar Rally Red Bull 660

2007 Dakar Rally Repsol 690

The Dakar Rally: January 2007 is here!  Our 2006 Dakar Rally pages and reports were very popular and we hope to bring you the same information during the 2007 Dakar Rally, with updates provided by three teams and edited by webBikeWorld.. 

Following are the initial rally preparation reports from KTM, Team Rally PanAmerica and Yamaha.

2007 Dakar Rally Route Map (opens JavaScript window)

• January 6, 2007: Stage 1 Results

• January 7, 2007: Stage 2 Results

• January 8, 2007: Stage 3 Results

• January 9, 2007: Stage 4 Results

• January 10, 2007: Stage 5 Results

• January 11, 2007: Stage 6 Results

• January 12-13, 2007: Stage 7 Results and KTM Rally Report

• January 14, 2007: Stage 8 Results

• January 12-13, 2007: Stage 9 Results

• January 12-13, 2007: Stage 10 Results

• January 16, 2007: Stage 11 Results

• January 17, 2007: Stage 12 Results

• January 18, 2007: Stage 13 Results

• January 19, 2007: Stage 14 Results

• January 20, 2007: Stage 15 and Final Standings

The History of the Dakar Rally
Shortly after the New Year, on January 6th, the 29th edition of the Dakar Rally will traditionally kick off the 2007 motor sport season.

Ever since the first event "The Dakar" has been the most grueling test for both man and machine, whereby for bike competitors things are quite a bit rougher then for the car drivers.

For the second time in the event’s history the caravan will start from the Portuguese capital Lisbon, when a total of 525 competitors from 42 nationalities will embark on the intimidating journey across some of the toughest desert landscapes on earth.

Formerly known as the Paris-Dakar Rally, the current race is the lasting legacy of one man and his dream: the pioneering French motorcycle racer, late Thierry Sabine. 

Back in 1977, Sabine was a bike competitor on the tough Abidjan-Nice rally who stranded in the deep Libyan sands.  Although he was defeated by the challenging conditions, Sabine fell in love with the harsh beauty of the desert and vowed he would return. 

One year later, on December 1978, Sabine’s unique event was ready and the first Paris-Dakar took off from Place du Trocadéro in Paris.  Since then the event has withstood many challenging issues mostly connected with safety and politics.  In 1986 the number of entrants soared to 603, while the event nearly perished in 1993 when only 154 competitors enlisted.

Since that low point the Dakar has recovered year by year and although both the name and the routes have changed, the spirit of the original event lives on.  Sabine’s vision says it all;  "it’s a challenge to those who go; a dream for those who stay behind."

Definitions and Rules
You'll see the French word piste used frequently in the Dakar Rally.  A piste is basically a dirt road.  Dr. Jim Jones of the West Chester University Department of History defines it this way: "In the context of French West Africa, where most roads were unpaved, a piste may be a major thoroughfare, such as those that cross the Sahara Desert.  Although they are unpaved, pistes are maintained by smoothing out the surface after each rainy season, or by removing drifted sand in the desert."

Documentation and Scrutineering:  Every Rally starts with a check of persons and bikes.  All team members must be accredited and all bikes must comply to the rules of the FIM.

Parc Fermé:  After scrutineering, the bikes have to go into Parc Fermé, a closed area where the bikes must not be touched until the next day before the start.  Only the rider may enter half an hour before his start time and get ready for the start.  This is to avoid that modifications may be done to the bikes after the technical scrutineering.

Prologue:  The prologue is a first short special test defining the starting order for the first stage. The time of the prologue counts already for the general result.

Liaison:  A liaison is the way to, between or after special stages.  The riders have a maximum time to go to the next check point, and get penalized if they exceed that time for some reason.  The time of liaison does not count for the final result.

Special Stage:  Timed race course, the times of the special stages count for the daily result.  The final result is made up by the addition of the times of the special stages plus penalties for exceeding liaison times or missing check points.

Check Point (CP):  A special stage is equipped with several check points where the riders get a stamp in their time card.  The check points prove that a rider is on the right track and in time.

Road Book:  Every day the riders get a road book which indicates the route of the day.  The information on a road book consists of pictures with arrows and short information (e.g. Danger!!!) as well as the distance to the information on the next picture and the overall distance.

GPS:  The second device together with the road book for the riders to find their way.  The organizers set a few waypoints in every stage which are on the road book and the riders have to pass correctly.

Yamaha at the Dakar Rally
Yamaha is the most victorious motorcycle manufacturer with nine overall victories and has been involved in the rally from the very beginning.  At the tender age 21 years old Cyril Neveu won the first event on the iconic XT500, a feat he repeated in the following year. 

Stephan Peterhansel
The Dakar’s most successful competitor, Stephan Peterhansel, made the biggest contribution to Yamaha’s victory tally which consists out of the following victories:

1979 Cyril Neveu (F)
1980 Cyril Neveu
1991 Stephan Peterhansel (F)
1992 Stephan Peterhansel
1993 Stephan Peterhansel
1995 Stephan Peterhansel
1996 Edi Orioli (I)
1997 Stephan Peterhansel
1998 Stephan Peterhansel

David Frétigné
After Peterhansel’s last win, Yamaha withdrew officially from the rally to return to the event five years later putting their latest groundbreaking technology to the ultimate endurance test.

Back then Dakar rookie David Frétigné caused a stir by winning three stages as he challenged the big capacity twin cylinder bikes on his revolutionary WR450F 2-Trac mono cylinder, the first off-road competition motorcycle to have two-wheel drive.  “Fretos” convincingly won the 450 class in 2004 and 2005, but on the many long "flat-out" desert stretches the lower top speed of a 450 single cylinder prevents it to fight for the overall victory, yet Frétigné managed to finish fifth overall in 2005.

The Yamaha WR450F
For this year’s edition Frétigné (#12) is again one of Yamaha’s favorites, although he saw his participation endangered when his new Spanish team failed to put together a competitive team. 

With two months to go, Yamaha and other loyal sponsors came to David’s aid enabling him to organize his own set up.  With the support of long term technical partner Franck Helbert, Frétigné is confident to score a career best result; “On paper, one can’t win with a 450, but I still aim for podium finishes.  With the imposed top speed of 160 km/h for bikes on some of the very fast stretches, two stages where no technical assistance is allowed and the 450cc bonus points system, we can challenge the factory teams with the bigger bikes.  If we are smart in terms of management and race strategy we might be able to close the performance gap completely

From the 230 motorcyclists, 57 will be equipped with WR450F machines in either 2-trac or rear wheel drive specification.  Some other competitors to look out for are the 27-year-old Portuguese rider Helder Rodriques (#10), who scored a ninth position finish overall in 2006.

Yamaha Team Holland fields a strong effort with five times sidecar world champion Daniel Willemsen (#233), who looks forward to enter his first Dakar participation, while Daniel’s team mate Mirjam Pol (#93) aims to go one better after finishing second in the female class last year.

What is sure is that the majority of the starters will not make it to the finish, while the skilled and fortunate ones will see their superhuman efforts rewarded when they ride on the Dakar beach, the traditional finish of the monster event.  On the 21st of January after 7.915 km, including 4.309 km of timed special stages we will know who made it and who didn’t.

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KTM Prepares for the Dakar Rally 2007

December 13, 2006 - There can be perhaps no better confirmation of KTM’s status as the world’s leading producer of off-road machines than a quick look at the starting list for Dakar 2007 -- the ultimate rally and the ultimate adventure.   Of the 250 motorcycles competing in 2007, 128 riders will be on the orange machines made in Austria.

Orange will therefore be the dominant color for off-road machines on the starting line of the motor sports classic when it leaves Lisbon on January 6, 2007.

Competitors will cross Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Mauritania, Mali and Senegal in a grueling adventure that puts man and machine against some of the toughest elements that nature can deliver.  This is a race of endurance, bravery, determination and meticulous planning. 

It is perhaps also the ultimate test for the new KTM 690 Rally machine, a product that has been developed in cooperation with the company’s Rally Department.  The new machine has already delivered good results in recent international rallies and will be ridden by all KTM Factory Team riders in the Dakar 2007.

KTM has dominated the start and the finish lines of the Dakar classic in recent years to underline their superiority in the off-road sector.  But as overall team manager Hans Trunkenpolz points out, it took patience and endurance to wait until orange emerged as the winning color in the motorcycle division.

“We needed five years before we experienced our first Dakar victory," Trunkenpolz said.  “We were close a number of times with second places but for various reasons it wasn’t until 2001 that we won and then it was a five-fold victory.“

From that point on the story of the Dakar race has gone hand-in-hand with the success of the Austrian company, which is now the second largest producer of motorcycles in Europe.

KTM’s three factory teams (Gauloises, Repsol and Red Bull) include eight factory riders supported by 43 team members, including a doctor and two physiotherapists.  Two of the world’s leading rally riders, Marc Coma and Cyril Despres, are both top favorites riding orange machines.  Coma, in the Repsol team, won the 2006 rally after Despres, the winner in 2005 who rides for Gauloises, dislocated his collarbone and had to settle for second place.  KTM riders therefore face a particular challenge in 2007 to live up to the 9 of 10 top places in last year’s race.

This year it is safety first for every KTM factory rider who will all wear the new neck brace protection developed for KTM by South African doctor Chris Leatt and already tested in other international rallies by top KTM riders.

But when the riders start their motors on January 6, they are merely continuing the task that commenced months before as a massive exercise in logistics.  KTM not only services its factory teams but also supplies customer package support for an army of other private riders on KTM machines.

Accompanying the race for KTM will be five Rally Nissans, two T4 Racing Trucks and four T5 Assistance Trucks.  They are in effect complete workshops on wheels ready to supply mechanical, safety and any personal assistance in circumstances. 

KTM transports between 36-38 tons of equipment for the race, including some two tons of selected spare parts and equipment air freighted to cover the contingency of the late arrival of a support vehicle, or if one is disabled during the event.

When riders cross the finish line of the 2007 Dakar they will have traveled 8,696 km through some of the most rugged terrain in the world.  There is no better testing ground for the new KTM 690 Rally machine in the hands of the most talented riders on the planet, and the experience gained, as always, will directly translate into even better KTM off-road motorcycles in the future.

KTM Factory Team riders for Dakar 2007

Gauloises KTM

Cyril Despres

Isidre Esteve

David Casteu

Frans Verhoeven

Repsol KTM

Marc Coma

Giovanni Sala

Jordi Viladoms

Red Bull KTM

Chris Blais

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Destination Dakar
The Dakar Rally is the most challenging motorsports event in the world.  This year, the organizers describe “Different stages every day, a fast-changing pace, high-speed stretches alternating with technical legs, intense navigation. . .

Racers have to be skilled, on the lookout for the slightest traps, and shrewd navigators, or else they will loose a great deal of time and energy. . . the Dakar will be an extreme challenge again this year.”

Team Rally PanAmerica, an American privateer motorcycle rally team backed by PAi and Top Oil, is a U.S. team that has prepared all year for this event.  Jonah Street (#25), no longer a rookie, looks forward to his second Dakar:  “I’m excited, especially since we’re much better prepared this year.  And, now I know what to expect.”

Teammate Casey McCoy (#232) has plenty of rallying experience, but never in the Dakar, “Participating in the Dakar has been a long time dream of mine that is now a reality.  I am very excited to be a part of a proven team that has years of Dakar experience.”

Team Manager Charlie Rauseo believes the team can do well, “We have all the elements necessary to get on the podium: talented riders, experienced crew, good training and equipment, and a passion for winning.  Hopefully a little luck and consistency will make up for what we lack in logistical support and manpower.”

The Dakar Rally starts in Lisbon, Portugal on January 6, 2007, and finishes in Dakar, Senegal on January 21.  In the United States, it will be televised on Versus Network, schedule posted on the team’s website.

Prologue
The Dakar Rally is the most difficult test of man and machine on the planet.  Hundreds of the world’s best will challenge the African desert for sixteen days.  Half may finish.  Only ONE team will win. 

Team Rally PanAmerica aims to be the winning team in the 2007 Dakar Rally.  We recently received this information introducing their 2007 Dakar Rally Team; here's their press release: