See you next year, possibly
By TMX Archives on 9th Jan 08
Editor JD passes comment on the sudden cancellation and the possible future, or not, of the Dakar Rallye..
THE talk over the weekend has definitely been regarding the cancellation of the Dakar Rallye. The 2008 edition of this iconic event, which has been running annually now for 30-years, believe it or not, was cancelled last Friday at noon by the ASO promoters, just 24-hours before it was due to kick off in Lisbon - leaving 500-odd competitors to simply pack their bags and go home, probably wondering what had just happened to them and what they were going to do.
And I reckon that more than a few of these competitors will be facing financial ruin on their return. The hundreds of privateers who have staked their mortgages, borrowed hugely and, if they were lucky, organised some sponsorship - the payment of which would almost certainly depend on them at least officially starting the event, which they didn't, by 24-hours - would appear to have been simply shoved out in the cold.
The official Dakar website was wiped absolutely clean with almost immediate effect leaving just a simple, short message as to the cancellation. No riders, drivers, sponsors, machines or proposed routes were left on view. Nothing. The event had simply disappeared. Yet the organisation has said that this cancellation will not affect the 2009 event - and that work will begin on it tomorrow!
I think they will find that actually, it definitely will affect any 2009 event that they have planned, especially regarding the several hundred riders and drivers who haven't got a clue what they will be doing tomorrow. Perhaps ASO could hire them to help work on this 2009 event?
Sure, after the announcement, all the top teams duly trotted out a standard PC press release in which they ‘stand by the organisers 100%, etc, etc...-. On Eurosport - which has now lost one of the major events from its January schedules - the top team riders and drivers were interviewed and yes, they were all disappointed but - big grins - for sure they would all be back next year!
Good for them.
But what of the vast majority, the Joes and Jacques and Johann's who pay, pay and pay again for the chance of following in the factory teams' wheeltracks? And not just the two-wheelers, many of the four-wheel teams will also be staring financial ruin in the face. At a conservative estimate it costs a minimum of £30,000 for half a chance of getting a solo bike to the finish line and around three times that for a four-wheeler.
The reason given for the cancellation is that the organisers say that the competitors' safety could not be guaranteed because of terrorist activities in West Africa, citing the deaths of four French tourists on Christmas Eve in Mauretania, a country where eight special stages were due to be run. Now, it is common knowledge that this region is - and always has been - a relatively dangerous place and in fact the rally had already been re-routed away from Niger, Algeria and northern Mali because of safety concerns.
But can any organiser of such an event EVER guarantee a competitor's safety? The answer to this is absolutely and demonstratively, NO. And the Dakar has seen threats and incidents several times before.
Given this, one would have thought that there would have been a Plan B of sorts. Heinz Kinigadner, KTM's race director certainly thought so and stated that at the very least the event could have started and completed the early (six) stages through Morocco - thus giving competitors and sponsors at least some welcome exposure as the media would still have been covering the event. Maybe even more than usual as all the journos, cameramen and crews were in place and once again vast fortunes had already been spent on travel and transport and ANY return would be better than nothing. But it appears that ASO were too busy scooping-up their banners and exiting Lisbon, stage left, to even consider possible options.
But, however the case is pleaded for the top teams, for the media, even for some of the poor countries en-route who look to the passing Dakar for a few quid to boost their non-existent economies, the real losers are the privateers who gear their whole year on three weeks in January.
To the majority of us, in reality, the Dakar is just a few hours of televised off-roading to keep us out of cold workshops in January.
To Eurosport it's a few hours broadcasting to fit between endless biathlon in Finland and tennis in Qatar.
For the likes of British Dakar stalwart, Mick Extance, it represents 12-months of his life.