With Kevin and Luciano Benavides as main standard bearers of the Argentine dream and of a legion composed of 20 national participantsnext Friday it will be launched in Saudi Arabia the 46th Dakar Rallyin which 778 competitors will try to complete the total route of 7,891 kilometers (4,727 of timed specials), divided into 12 stagesand that will extend until the next January 19. The most extreme competition in the world, which for the fifth consecutive time has Saudi Arabia as epicenterthis year is shaping up, according to the organizers, “as the most demanding to dateboth for the pilots as well as machines”.
It will begin with a prologue of 28 kilometers of speed in Al-Ulaa destination already visited in previous editions, but this time it will delve into the magnitude of the desert and in an emblematic area for the presence of historic temples. This prologue will be longer and more complex than in other years, with the objective of “placing the pilots in a coherent order that corresponds to its value”, facing the start of the first stage.
The rigor of prologue is just a preview of what will be two weeks of maximum demandwith almost a 60% new route and that the main course will be the stage 48 hour marathonscheduled for sixth sectionwhich will be a curler in Shubaytah. During these two days the pilots will not have assistance and will be distributed in eight different bivouacs.
At 16:00 on Thursday, January 11, participants must stop at the closest campsite on their route and there they will spend the night until 7:00 the next day, when the competition will be relaunched. During that time, they will not have a connection or any type of information about the results of their rivals. In total they will travel 781km, 572 timedand all of them in the Empty Quartera desert where there is no record of life and that has an area of 650,000 square kilometerscovered only by sand, with dunes that reach 250 meters high.
This journey that will unite Al-Ulawhere the first stage will begin, with yanbu, the scene of the last section located on the banks of the Red Seawill be the one that the 20 Argentine representatives. A legion composed of 11 pilots and nine navigators. The defending champion Kevin Benavides (KTM) arrives at the event as the country’s top exponent and among the candidates to repeat the title that he had also achieved in 2021 with Honda. However, the 34-year-old from Salta does not arrive in the best physical condition for the test. Last December 3 suffered an accident while training in the United States, which caused a fracture in his left fibula. Due to this injury, he had to stop the last part of his preparation.
Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna), his brother and champion of the Rally Raidthat in this In 2024 he will try to achieve his first victory in the Dakar. The 28-year-old rider’s best position was sixth place achieved in 2023, where he also achieved three stage wins. The Benavides brothers They will not be the only Argentine representatives in MotorcyclesNext to them will be the Riojan Diego Llanos (KTM), who will contest his third Dakar after his 26th place in 2022 and his abandonment in 2023; Juan Rostan (GasGas) from Neuquén, who will debut in this edition; and the Cordovan Sebastian Urquia (KTM), who returns to the desert after four years of absence and will appear in his eighth Dakar.
In Quads, the category in which Argentina is he winningest country with seven conquestsand who had the brothers for years Marcos and Alejandro Patronelli as great dominators, this time it will have only two Argentine drivers and both candidates for the title: the Buenos Aires native Manuel Andujar (Yamaha), who was champion of the 2021 edition and wants to recover the crown after two consecutive abandonments. AND Francisco Moreno Flores, who finished second in the 2022 and 2023 Dakar.
In Cars There will be only one Argentine pilot. It’s about Mendoza Juan Cruz Yacopiniwho will run with a Toyota Hilux of the Over Racing team and will seek to improve, in his fourth participation, the seventh place achieved in 2023. In front of him he will have the best exponents of the category such as the French Stephane Peterhanseltop winner of the event with 14 titles and the Qatari Nasser Al Attiyahdefending crown and five-time champion.
The big absentee in this edition will be the Mendoza Orlando Newfoundland, who after 17 contested editions, the last 15 consecutive, decided to put a stop to his participation. In the category Challenger, Nicholas Cavigliasso (Taurus), champion in Quads In 2019, he will appear again in this division, accompanied by his partner, Valentina Pertegariniwho will be your navigator as in the Dakar 2023where they finished 25th.
The pampas David Zilleas a pilot and the Cordoban Sebastian Cesana, as navigator, will also be protagonists in Challenger (CAN-AM). AND Augusto Sanz and Gastón Ariel Mattarucco will participate as navigators of the Portuguese Ricardo Porem and from the Colombian Jose Velezrespectively. Jorge Pérez Compancaboard a Toyota Landcruiser HDJ 80 and accompanied by his co-pilot José María Voltawill participate in the Classic category, which brings together vehicles that competed in the competition in the decades of the ’80s and ’90s.
The Argentine legion that will be competing in Saudi Arabia is completed by sailors Ricardo Torlaschi (with the Italian Cristina Giampaoli), Fernando Acosta (with the Ecuadorian Sebastián Guayasamin) and Facundo Jatón (with the Italian Enrico Gáspari), all of them on UTV, while Bruno Jacomy from Mendoza will be co-pilot of the American Jamie Campbell, in the innovative M1000 category, in which vehicles with renewable energy participate.
Source: Ambito
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