Everything you need to know about the Dakar Rally, 2019: It is possible the last one in South America, but it is an open contest

Dakar starts Today the monsterrally Dakar for the eleventh time on South American soil. One of the candidates on the podium is the Landenaar Tom Colsoul, recent winner of the world title in the FIA Cross-Country Rally Cup on the side of the Pole Jakub Przygonski in a MINI John Works Cooper.

back To the good habit, the Dakar Rally is the first really big appointment on the autosportkalender. But the viability of the Dakar in South America is gradually on the run out: “that's Right, the contest is this year shorter than usual, less than ten days and has only nine rides, all in one country, Peru,” explains Tom Colsoul. “That may be the organizer ASO - also the company behind the Tour de France - not two seasons in a row to afford. For next season, would the Dakar once in the direction of the south of Africa or the Middle East can move. The north of Africa and the Sahellanden, where it once began, that you may forget, we will never go.”

According to Tom Colsoul that all is well, no impact on the sporting progress of the race itself, “which is sometimes the hardest of all editions in South America can be. The almost ten days of sand and dunes, which is very heavy for the participants and at the same time, the tension increases. This is an unpredictable and open edition, with perhaps ten candidate winners. Remember that former winners as Stéphane Peterhansel, Carlos Sainz and Nasser Al-Attiyah at the start, in addition to Sébastien Loeb. But also they are going to have to deal with the dunes. You can dunes on one day, lose everything, and you vastrijden, which means one or two hours of loss. The role of the rider and the corijder is about 50-50.”