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. The rally is an off-road endurance event. The terrain that the competitors traverse is much tougher than that used in conventional rallying, and the vehicles used are typically true off-road vehicles and motorcycles, rather than modified on-road vehicles. Most of the competitive special sections are off-road, crossing dunes, mud, camel grass, rocks, and erg among others. The distances of each stage covered vary from short distances up to 800–900 kilometres (500–560 mi) per day. The rough terrain, driver fatigue, and lack of skill usually results in accidents and serious injuries.
The Amaury Sport Organisation is a private company, founded in 1992, that is part of the privately-owned French media group Éditions Philippe Amaury (EPA). ASO organises the Tour de France and other cycling races, as well as golf, running, sailing and off-road motorsport events over 250 days of competition per year, with 90 events in 30 countries. The president of ASO is Jean-Etienne Amaury, the son of Philippe Amaury and Marie-Odile Amaury, and grandson of EPA founder, Émilien Amaury.
GasGas is a Spanish motorcycle and bicycle manufacturer specializing in off-road and trial bikes. The company was founded in 1985 in Salt, Girona, Catalonia, by Narcìs Casas and Josep Pibernat after the closure of the original Bultaco factory, where they previously worked.
Montesa Honda is a subsidiary business of Honda, which assembles several models of motorcycles and bicycles in Barcelona, Spain. It was formed in 1944 by Pere Permanyer and Francesc Xavier "Paco" Bultó. The business was Spanish-owned until entering into an association with Honda.
Enduro is a form of motorcycle sport run on extended cross-country, off-road courses. Enduro consists of many different obstacles and challenges. The main type of enduro event, and the format to which the World Enduro Championship is run, is a time-card enduro, whereby a number of stages are raced in a time trial against the clock.
Marc Coma i Camps is a Spanish rally racing motorcycle rider. He won the Dakar Rally in 2006, 2009, 2011, 2014, and 2015 riding a KTM motorcycle, and is also a six-time winner of the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship. He was the race director of the Dakar Rally from 2016 to 2018.
Sherco is a French motorcycle manufacturer, specialising in off-road motorbikes. Sherco are best known for their extremely popular trials bikes, although they also make enduro and supermoto bikes.
Ossa was a Spanish motorcycle manufacturer which was active from 1924 to 1982 and from 2010 to 2015. Founded by Manuel Giró, an industrialist from Barcelona, Ossa was best known for lightweight, two-stroke-engined bikes used in observed trials, motocross and enduro. The company was known originally as Orpheo Sincronic Sociedad Anónima (O.S.S.A.) and was later renamed Maquinaria Cinematográfica, S.A..
The motorcycle sport of racing includes motorcycle road racing and off-road racing, both either on circuits or open courses, and track racing. Other categories include hill climbs, drag racing and land speed record trials.
Rally raid is a type of off-road motorsport event competed with different types of vehicles. Along with shorter baja rallies, rally raid constitutes cross-country rallying. Both the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) co-organise a common World Rally-Raid Championship featuring the same events and types of vehicles.
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.
Toby Joseph Price OAM is an Australian off-road and enduro motorcycle racing world champion. He lives in Gold Coast, Queensland, and rode for the KTM Off-Road Racing Team until October 2015, then the Red Bull Factory KTM Rally Team until 2024.
Iris Kramer is a German International motorcycle trials rider. Kramer is notable for winning six German Women's Trials Championships, three Women's FIM Trial European Championships and the 2007 Women's FIM Trial World Championship. In 2011, Kramer was named an FIM Legend for her motorcycling achievements.
CS Santosh is an Indian off-road and enduro motorcycle racer. His full name is Chunchunguppe Shivashankar Santosh. He is a multiple National Supercross and Motocross champion. CS Santosh has spent more than a decade racing motorbikes across challenging terrains and multiple nations. He is a rider who is under the banner of Hero MotoSports, and has spearheaded a rally revolution of sorts in India. Santosh has also given fresh hope to fellow talented riders that they too can make the step up to the global rally level.
Sandra Gómez Cantero, is a Spanish Women's International motorcycle trials rider. Gomez has twice been Spanish Women's Trials Champion and a member of the Spanish Trial Des Nations winning team on five occasions, including 2017.
Ludivine "Lulu" Puy is a French motorcycle racer. Among other things, she won the women's world championship title twice in the Enduro World Championship, won the European Enduro Championship three times, took part in the Dakar Rally and was part of the winning team at the International Six Days Enduro women's race five times from 2008 to 2012.
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.
The World Rally-Raid Championship is a rally raid series co-sanctioned by the FIA and FIM and promoted by the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO). The championship's seasons culminate with world championship titles in both automobile and motorcycle categories.
Gerard Farrés i Güell is a Spanish motorcycle racer of enduro and rally raid. In rally raid, he finished in third place in the motorcycle category in the 2017 Dakar Rally and won Baja Aragón in the same category in 2007, 2009 and 2011.
The 2023 World Rally-Raid Championship was the second season of the annual competition for rally raid events sanctioned by both the FIA and FIM. The Amaury Sport Organization is in the second of a five-year contract to promote the championship.
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