Edi Orioli (born 5 December 1962 in Udine) is an Italian rallying motorcycle racer.
Many consider Orioli to be one of the best motorcyclists in rallying, with four victories in the Dakar Rally, and one victory in the Pharaoh Rally, and was considered a great motorcyclist before commencing a career in automobile racing.
The Dakar Rally or simply "The Dakar", formerly known as the "Paris–Dakar Rally", is an annual rally raid organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation. Most events since the inception in 1978 were staged from Paris, France, to Dakar, Senegal. Security threats in Mauritania led to the cancellation of the 2008 rally, and events from 2009 to 2019 were held in South America. Since 2020, the rally has been held in Saudi Arabia. The event is open to amateur and professional entries, professionals typically making up about eighty percent of the participants.
Carlos Sainz Cenamor is a Spanish rally driver. He won the World Rally Championship drivers' title with Toyota in 1990 and 1992, and finished runner-up four times. Constructors' world champions to have benefited from Sainz are Subaru (1995), Toyota (1999) and Citroën. In the 2018 season, he was one of the official drivers of the Team Peugeot Total. He received the Princess of Asturias Sports Award in 2020. Sainz founded the Acciona | Sainz XE Team to join Extreme E and competed in the first two seasons alongside Laia Sanz.
Fabrizio Meoni was an Italian off-road and rallying motorcycle racer. He was a member of the KTM Factory Team.
Cagiva is an Italian motorcycle manufacturer. It was founded in 1950 by Giovanni Castiglioni in Varese, originally producing small metal components. Giovanni's sons, Claudio and Gianfranco Castiglioni, went into the motorcycle industry in 1978. The name is a portmanteau derived from the founder's name 'Giovanni Castiglioni' and the founding location, i.e. Castiglioni Giovanni Varese.
Race to Dakar is a documentary series following actor and keen motorcyclist Charley Boorman's entry into the 2006 Dakar Rally from Lisbon to Dakar. First aired on Sky Two and ABC Television (Australia) during 2006, it was also released as a book.
Heinz Kinigadner is an Austrian former professional motocross racer. He competed in the Motocross World Championships from 1978 to 1988. Kinigadner is notable for being the first Austrian competitor to win an FIM motocross world championship. He won consecutive 250cc motocross world championships in 1984 and 1985. After his motocross career, he became a successful Rally Raid competitor. In 2016, Kinigadner was named an FIM Legend for his motorcycle racing achievements.
The 2009 Dakar Rally was the 31st running of the Dakar Rally. In addition to motorcycle, automobile, and truck categories, a separate quad class was added for the first time. The race began on 3 January 2009, and took place across Argentina and Chile. The rally was for the first time to take place outside of Europe and Africa as the location was changed by organizers due to concerns about possible terrorist attacks that resulted in the moving of the 2008 edition from the traditional route to Senegal to Hungary and Romania in the spring.
1988 Dakar Rally also known as the 1988 Paris–Dakar Rally was the 10th running of the Dakar Rally event. 311 cars, 183 motorcycles, and 109 trucks started the rally. The rally was won by Juha Kankkunen, the motorcycle category was won by Edi Orioli, and the truck category was won by Karel Loprais on a Tatra 815. The event was marred by the death of six people, three participants, a mother and child killed in Mauritania when a camera car ran into a group of spectators, and a 10-year-old girl killed crossing the road in Mali.
1990 Dakar Rally also known as the 1990 Paris–Dakar Rally was the 12th running of the Dakar Rally event. 465 competitors started from La Défense. The rally was won by 1981 world rally champion, Ari Vatanen, for the third time in four years. The motorcycle class was won by Edi Orioli.
The 1994 Paris–Dakar–Paris Rally was the 16th running of the Dakar Rally event. The route was from Paris to Dakar and back to Paris. it was the first Dakar Rally organized by Amaury Sport Organisation. Fenouil designed the route.
1996 Dakar Rally, also known as the 1996 Paris-Dakar Rally, was the 18th running of the Dakar Rally event. It began on 29 December 1995 with a prologue stage in Granada, Spain - the second successive year the event began away from the traditional starting point of Paris - and ended in the Senegalese capital of Dakar on 14 January 1996. Pierre Lartigue won the car class for the third year in succession for Citroën and Edi Orioli won his fourth motorcycle title for Yamaha. Viktor Moskovskikh secured the first trucks class title for the Russian Kamaz marque.
The 2006 Dakar Rally, also known as the 2006 Paris-Dakar Rally, was the 28th running of the Dakar Rally event. The 2006 event ran from 31 December 2005 to 15 January 2006. It started from Lisbon, Portugal, and passed through Spain, Morocco, Western Sahara, Mali, Mauritania, Guinea, before finishing in Senegal. The format included speed restrictions on motorcycles and trucks and reduced use of global positioning systems. Competitors included double world rally champion, Carlos Sainz.
Carlo Alberto de Gavardo Prohens was a Chilean motorist and motorcyclist who participated in numerous rallies worldwide, including the Dakar Rally and Rallye des Pharaons. He was the first Chilean motorcyclist to run the Paris-Dakar from beginning to end.
Cyril Despres is a French rally racer and resident of Andorra. He won the Dakar Rally five times, in 2005, 2007, 2010, 2012 and 2013, riding a KTM motorcycle. He also won the Red Bull Romaniacs, an enduro event, three times, in 2004, 2005 and 2007, and the Erzberg Rodeo in 2002 and 2003. In the 2018 season he is one of the official drivers of the Team Peugeot Total.
Dirk von Zitzewitz is a German professional racing driver and motorcyclist, most notable for being on the winning team of the 2009 Dakar Rally alongside Giniel de Villiers.
Franco Picco is an Italian former professional rally raid motorcyclist. He has placed three-times on the podium at the Dakar Rally and is a two-time winner of the Pharaoh's Rally. In 2015, Picco was named an FIM Legend for his motorcycle racing career.
Yamaha YZE 850T was a twin cylinder rally raid bike, produced from 1992 to 1993 with the specific task of winning the Dakar Rally, winning in both years with Stéphane Peterhansel.
Kevin Max Benavides is an Argentine rally raid motorcyclist who is best known for winning the Dakar Rally twice, in 2021 and 2023, as well as coming second place in 2018. He is a former driver of the Monster Energy Honda Racing. In April 2021, he signed to race for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing in both the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship and the Dakar Rally onboard the KTM 450 RALLY.
The 2020 Dakar Rally was the 42nd edition of the event and the first edition held in Saudi Arabia. The event started in Jeddah on 5 January and finished in Al-Qiddiya on 17 January after 12 stages of the competition.
The 2022 Dakar Rally was a rally raid event held in Saudi Arabia and the 44th edition of the Dakar Rally organized by Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO). The event took place between 1–14 January 2022. This was the third time Saudi Arabia had hosted the event, with support from the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation. The race started in Ha'il and ended in Jeddah, going through canyons and cliffs in the Neom region, passing by the Red Sea coastline, into the stretches of dunes surrounding Riyadh, with a lot more action on sand dunes in the Empty Quarter. The route consisted of one prologue stage and 12 normal stages, with one rest day in Riyadh on 8 January.