First successful day for Daniel Sanders. The Australian KTM biker won the prologue of the Dakar rally, which began this Friday in Bisha for its sixth edition in the Saudi Arabian desert. At 30, Sanders, winner of the last Morocco rally and who aims to become the second Australian to win the Dakar on a motorcycle after Toby Price (2016 and 2018), completed the 29 km special in 16'51.
He was 12 seconds ahead of the Botswanan Ross Branch (Hero) and the young 19-year-old Spaniard Edgar Canet (KTM). The American Ricky Brabec (Honda), winner of the 2024 Dakar, ranks 4th at 18 seconds while the Frenchman Adrien Van Beveren comes 8th.
This prologue, which consisted of a loop around Bisha (south-west), allows the first 10 arrivals to choose their starting place for the first stage. For its 47th edition, the Dakar rally started on Friday with 800 competitors in competing aboard 440 vehicles entered in the different races. Tracing an 8,000km curve through Saudi Arabia, the famous rally-raid will culminate on January 17 in the desert dunes of the Empty Quarter, on the border with the United Arab Emirates.
