Every year there’s an appointment with the maximum category of raids. Once again, the Rally Dakar 2020 Saudi Arabia has everything ready to start the desert adventure between the 5th and the 17th of January.

This edition is almost a comeback to the origins, in a different continent, but in a very similar terrain that the ones in the first editions celebrated in Africa. The Middle East will be the ideal scenario to get back this spirit of adventure and resistance in the middle of an extreme nature.

The 2nd of January the verifications park will be open, compulsory for all the participant vehicles. The 5th of January, almost like the Three Wise Men parade, will be the start of this challenge that will cover a total distance of 7.500 km in 12 stages.

A 75% of the rally will be done through the desert, testing mechanics and pilots due to the hardness of the climate and the terrain, a hostile environment where many of them will say goodbye to their hope of winning and others will put their bodies to the limit just for the will of participating and finishing such a challenge.

The start is in Jedda, next to the Red Sea, the two first stages will be done almost parallel to the sea line to, later on, get inside to the desert on its maximum power. Altogether there will be 5 special stages that will surpass the 450 km of travel, being the 7th longest with 546 km bypassing dunes and crossings that will expose the navigation skills of the co-pilots.

We’re talking about kilometers of specials, without forgetting that all the stages are covered from the start until the end as a total of the day route. As an example the 9th stage covers 415 km of special for a total of 891 km between Wadi Al-Dawasir and Haradh.

The final stage of the Dakar 2020, that is traditionally a ride of 447 km, 374 of special, hides 100 km of tracks that can disappoint the ones that relax. The 17th of January everything will be set to crown the champions in Qiddiya, a young city only 40 km away from Riyadh.

The regulation has some news, like the Roadbook in colours, an intuitive code that will let the participants earn some time in the preparation of the following stage, specially the amateurs. The Compulsory Stop for all the categories, a step forward in terms of safety. The 10 minutes of mechanics for motorbikes and quads in the supermarathon stage. And, in case of abandoning with no medical consequences, a crew or a pilot can rejoin the race in a parallel classification, the “Dakar Experience” that will let them continue with their learning for future participations.

This edition will host in the starting line some pilots like Joan Barreda, Laia Sanz, Nani Roma, Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso, Jordi Juvanteny, Gerard Farrés among many others that will try to make a hard time for Toby Price, Nasser Al-Attiyah or Stephane Peterhansel, great candidates for the final triumph. 

Several motorbike and quadricycle teams will mount NG Brakess, they will be submitted to extremely exigent conditions. All this experience in competition is useful for the R+D department to improve our products, even more. This is about to start, follow it in the Dakar 2020 Saudi Arabia.