Presentation of the route through Saudi Arabia of the 2021 Dakar Rally
The organisers of the Dakar Rally have announced the details of the route for the next edition. The presentation was given by David Castera, who also commented on how the work of exploring the route went and gave more news about the most difficult race in the world. A little more than a month before the start of the 2021 Dakar Rally, David Castera and ASO, the company organising the event, presented what will be the final route of the event next January. It will be the second event in the Middle East and Asia, the third continent to host the famous rally raid, after the editions in Africa since its beginnings and in South America from 2009.
Once again, the race will be held in a single country, Saudi Arabia, because the global health crisis made it impossible for the rest of the neighbouring nations to host one of the most important events in the world of motor racing. The map was officially unveiled through a one-hour virtual presentation, with David Castera as the main speaker. There, the Frenchman described various aspects of the race.
As for the route, Castera pointed out that there was a lot of hard work in the Saudi desert to be able to draw the best possible route for the hundreds of competitors who will take the start on 3 January 2021. The action in Saudi Arabia will also begin before that day. After receiving the vehicles, the technical and administrative checks will take place on 1 and 2 January. On the same day, 2 January, there will be a short 10-kilometre prologue which will determine the starting grid for the first stage.
The first stage, Jeddah Bisha, will be a not very long special, 277 kilometres long. The riders will then have the first highlight at Bisha-Wadi al-Dawasir, with a timed section of 457 km. The third stage will mean the first loop of the 2021 Odyssey, Wadi al-Dawasir - Wadi al-Dawasir, of 403 km in length. To continue on day four, the riders will have to head for the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh, on a slightly shorter route of 337 km. Before the rest day, they will have to cover 419 km on the Riyadh-Buraydah special and a further 485 km between Buraydah-Ha'il on the sixth stage.
This will complete the first week and give them a well-deserved rest day in Ha'il before setting off for Sakaka. This seventh special will be the first part of the marathon stage. That is to say, at the arrival in Sakaka, there will be no assistance waiting for the drivers to repair their vehicles. The second part of the special will be Sakaka-Neom, one of the most beautiful locations seen in the 2020 Dakar and which, they hope, will become a model ecological city in the near future. So much so, that Castera announced that there will be a press conference on that day to tell more details about the Dakar's ecological project. It is hoped that by 2026, the top teams will have vehicles with hydrogen-based fuels, while by 2030 it will reach the entire caravan.
Stage 9 will also be a loop between Neom, while stage 10 will end in Al-Ula after 342 kilometres of special. The last two days will run along the Red Sea coast. Al-Ula-Yanbu will be the 11th day with the longest special of the race, 511 kilometres timed. Finally, before the podium in Jeddah, 225 kilometres of special will define the final positions in each category. At the finish, which will be on the shores of the Red Sea, Castera says that it will bring back memories of the old days of Paris-Dakar on the Lac Rose in the capital of Senegal.
A total of 7,646 kilometres will be covered, with 4,767 kilometres of special, divided into 12 stages, with a marathon stage and a rest day. The race will run from 3 to 15 January 2021. In addition to the five categories that usually form part of the competition, this year the Dakar Classic has been added, where some 26 historic vehicles from the rally will accompany the caravan in Saudi Arabia in a regular race.
A Dakar Rally that has the Madrid driver Carlos Sainz as the winner of last year's edition in the car category.