North Yorkshire off-road motorcycle racer Robbie Wallace got his bid for the 2025 Dakar Rally underway earlier today when he competed in the event Prologue which saw him finish the 29km route in 50th place overall.
Aboard the TCC Plant-sponsored KTM, the 27-year-old electrical engineer from Northallerton was third bike away from the start in Bisha, Saudi Arabia, and ahead of most of the field, completed the stage in 29th position in class, claiming the fourth place in the Rookie class also.
Starting out at 5am local time in a cool eight degrees, Robbie had to overcome a sandstorm before temperatures rose during the day to the mid-twenties. The Prologue determines the starting order for tomorrow’s first 413km stage but does not count towards the overall classification.
Robbie Wallace: “That was a good start. Starting third on the road meant I didn’t have too much dust to deal with and I soon passed the rider in front, so I had a clear run to the finish. I went fast when I had a clear sight ahead and eased off on the rocky sections which could have caught me out. I didn’t make any mistakes apart from catching my handlebar guard on a tree. My pace was good, although I went a bit quicker than I was planning, and the bike felt great so hopefully I can continue that into tomorrow and have a clean run.”
Such is the nature of the two-week long event, already out after crashing and sustaining a broken wrist is factory rider Harith Noah. The rider from India won his class on last year’s event and finished 11th overall.
SAND SNIPPETS
- Robbie has been selected for TV coverage as one of the ‘Dakar Heroes’ so will be featuring occasionally on the extensive Eurosport coverage of the event, whereby highlights are broadcast every evening.
- The start to the trip didn’t go to plan when Robbie and his dad Duncan arrived in Jeddah following the overnight flight from London Heathrow. Upon checking in at the hotel, they found it had been double booked so they had to jump in the hire car and travel around in the early hours looking for alternative accommodation.
- Robbie’s ‘home’ for the next two weeks is a simple single person tent where he will rest overnight following the exertions of the various stages. (see picture attached).
More updates as the event progresses.
Notes to Editors
The 47th edition of the Dakar will see around 140 motorcycle competitors, as well as hundreds of car, buggy and truck drivers from all over the world converge on Bisha in the south west of Saudi Arabia starting with technical checks and administration on January 1st/2nd 2025 and then the Prologue on January 3rd 2025 before the competition starts in earnest the following day. There then follows a mighty 950km stage over two days on varied terrain, with competitors required to camp out overnight in the desert in a bivouac. At least five stages of the 2025 Dakar will take place on separate courses for safety purposes to reduce the danger of cars and trucks overtaking bikes, and another feature of the 2025 event is riders will have to service their own bikes for up to 800km on a couple of days. After 14 days incorporating 12 stages, Shubaytah, in the eastern part of the country and near the Abu Dhabi border, will welcome the weary finishers.
