Seaside sprints have become a regular fixture in the Dakar of the 21st century since the first ones were held in Castellón, Spain, in 2001 and in France in 2004. The following year, the clock started ticking on the beach of Castelldefels, near Barcelona, and in 2013 the race started on Agua Dulce beach in Lima. This time round, the 45th edition got under way on the Red Sea coast near Yanbu, which hosted a 13 km prologue on a winding sandy track packed for the occasion. As a former enduro rider and a former track racer, respectively, Toby Price and Mattias Ekström had good reason to salivate at the course, which started and ended at the entrance to the Sea Camp.
No-one expected a ten-minute effort representing about 0.3% of the special mileage from here to Dammam to provide a clear snapshot of the state of play, but it did buoy the morale of those who put their speed and skills to good effect. Toby Price, for example, bounced back after two painful exits from rallies, one due to a car fire in the Baja 1000 and another due to a crash in the Rallye du Maroc. The Australian, who was not tipped as KTM’s safest bet, scored his sixteenth Dakar stage win by a single second over his compatriot Daniel Sanders, while Botswana’s Ross Branch took the bottom step of the podium behind the two men from Oz. Joaquim Rodrigues (sixth) and Sebastian Bühler (eighth) also placed high and proved that Hero is a force to be reckoned with.
Australian bikers have dominated the inaugural stage of the Dakar ever since Joan Barreda won the opener of the 2019 edition. Toby Price has scored a hat-trick since 2020. The only one that escaped him, stage 1A of the 2022 Dakar, went to fellow Australian Daniel Sanders, who netted GasGas its maiden win. Price has never gone home empty-handed in nine Dakar starts. Will the 2023 edition of the toughest rally raid on Earth see him return to the top of the podium for the first time since 2019?
- From Dakar 2023 Press Release
<
