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Once upon a time there was the Dakar. Or at least there used to be… because although it still retains this name today, the last time the extremely tough race in the desert set foot in the capital of Senegal was in 2007. After the forced stop in 2008 due to unrest in and around Mauritania, in 2009 the race - distorted in its essence - migrated to South America and remained there until 2019 before moving on to the all-conquering Saudi Arabia. Just as the African section disappeared, so did the European and French ones. In fact, the last time the start was given over the Alps was 2004.
It goes without saying that following this drastic change of route and format the event lost part of its appeal and if in the glorious years there was a lot of talk about it and it received a lot of coverage in the media, now many people don't even know of its existence.
The heart of the matter is that although there are still the same amount of difficulties and on the contrary, with the recent new road books the number of navigation problems have multiplied and with them the number of controversies, the fact that the event takes place entirely in one country and that there are no longer any critical issues imposed by changes in scenery, temperature, terrain and travel, has given the idea that the current rally raid is no longer as fearsome and challenging as it should be due to its very nature.
Africa Eco Race, Sabine's route followed by Auriol
So, to contrast the clear break between the charm of tradition and more "comfortable" modernity, Hubert Auriol, veteran of the competition, who passed away in 2021, decided in 2009 to give life to a competition - always in the period just after Christmas - which retraced the legendary roads of the Paris-Dakar traced by Thierry Sabine in 1978. Thus, the Africa Eco Race was born.
In both cases, cars, motorbikes/quads and trucks in various forms are fielded, just as the emphasis is placed on sustainability and zero-emission technology using photovoltaic and renewable energy. Every year the number of electric vehicles at the start line increases, thanks to manufacturer developments on how to increase autonomy, and they always prove to be protagonists.
As for the Dakar, there are 12 stages with a single stop dividing the intense 5,000 km effort exactly in half. In this case, this year it will be held from 5 to 19 January from Al Ula to Shaybah.
The Africa Eco Race has already started and will end on 14 January. After the parade through the streets of the Principality of Monaco, the group moved to Sete, in Hérault, and from there embarked for Nador, in Morocco where the challenge got underway on Tuesday. Here too the route will be characterized by 12 special stages for a total of 6,000 km, with only one stop after the fifth SS. The countries crossed will be Morocco, for the note Mauritania and obviously Senegal, with the last duel in the splendid scenery of Lake Retba.
Since the latter is a raid with less of a history behind it, the competitors are also significantly lower in number, i.e., 122 compared to over 1000 in the Arabian race.
