After three days of intense competition, North Yorkshire’s Robbie Wallace continued his impressive early pace in the 2025 Dakar Rally, and following the mammoth Superstage which consisted of nearly 1,000km over a 48-hour period, he holds 58th place overall.
Aboard the X Raids Experience TCC Plant-sponsored 450cc KTM, Robbie, from Northallerton, was hopeful of continuing his great start to his unique adventure as the event headed for one of the longest stages in its history, and which necessitated all competitors camping out overnight in the Saudi Arabian desert with minimal rations and no outside assistance.
Heading out north-east from the base at Bisha on Sunday, 27-year-old Robbie encountered varied terrain, including a large distance involving sand dunes which he has very limited experience of, and by the 17.00 curfew as darkness fell, he had made it to the second camp where he spent the night under canvas in near freezing temperatures after around 600km.
At dawn today, the riders were allowed to service their machines with the basic toolkit they carried and amongst them, Robbie set about improving on his 61st position overall for the remainder of the stage. However, he missed a checkpoint which resulted in a 14-minute time penalty which dropped him from 53rd overall to 58th where he is also 39th in the Rally2 class and fourth Rookie still, out of the 125 bikes still in the event.
Robbie Wallace: “That was the toughest stage I’ve ever ridden. I was on the bike competitively for 11 hours going at it flat out. Riding in the pitch dark at speed whilst trying to navigate without crashing was a major challenge and although I had a few issues, both the bike and I made it to the end of the stage. Just as I crossed the line, the electrics failed so that was a bit of luck, but I was penalised 14 minutes for missing a way point in the dunes. By the time I realised, I worked out the time loss would be less with the penalty than trying to retrace my tracks, so I just pressed on.”
Tomorrow’s route sees another 1,314km, of which 847 are competitive and goes north from Bisha to Al Henakiyah. However, currently, the region is subject to severe storms which could continue for some while. As a result, the organisers may adopt an alternative programme for tomorrow’s stage.
Results after Stage 2 – ’48-hour Chrono’ Bisha to Bisha
Overall Position: 58th
Rally2 Position: 39th
Rookie Position: 4th
Overall Time: 14h 34′ 38”
Time Behind Leader: 03h 22′ 25”
Distance Covered: 3,153 km
Distance To Go: 9,821 km
SAND SNIPPETS
- The mighty ’48-hour chrono’ stage totalled 1058 competitive kilometres and is the equivalent of riding from John O’Groats to London. Imagine that, but on sand and over dunes, encountering rocks and boulders, with no signposts in the desert, doing your own navigation and having to camp out halfway in a basic one-man tent with only a military ration kit…
- Robbie featured briefly on Saturday evening’s Eurosport TV coverage as one of the chosen Dakar Heroes and further coverage is likely over the forthcoming highlights packages which usually air in the UK at 8pm nightly.
- In the above coverage, Robbie was proudly sporting a snazzy face mask which he said his mum Julie sent with him to help with the dusty conditions. When asked about it, “It’s doing the trick…” he proudly proclaimed…
- After the 48-hour Chrono stage, in the general bike rankings, Aussie Daniel Sanders (KTM) has opened up a gap and now leads American Skyler Howes (Honda) by 12 minutes 36 seconds. Botswanan Ross Branch (Hero) is third, four seconds behind Howes and eight seconds ahead of Spain’s Tosha Schareina (Honda). Title holder Ricky Brabec (Honda) completes the top five, 15 minutes and nine seconds behind Sanders.
Pictures attached courtesy of EdoPhoto, higher resolution versions and a selection of others are available upon request.
More updates as the event progresses and further details at www.dakar.com.
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.
ENDS
