FACT OF THE DAY The Metge brothers and the Dakar, a romantic rendezvous

Despite their annual commitment to the Dakar event, the Metge brothers have never seen Africa. Their Dakar is a mix of South America and Saudi Arabia. Two radically different playing fields, but far from the capital of Senegal which gave its name to the event. Even if the great adventure remains one of the initial motivations*.

Michael is the eldest of the siblings, who “was already training on motorcycles, on my father's track, at the age of three”. The one who tells this story, although he was unable to see it, is Adrien, his younger brother. This story is part of the family legend, which takes off with the father, Jean-Yves, who had already inscribed his name on the Dakar plates. It continues with the mother, Mireille, who managed to finish second in the des Gazelles rally, in Morocco. On the family property, route de Villesèque in Sauve, a track hosted training for a time, before it was deemed illegal. It is this playing field that allowed Michael to acquire the level to line up on the starting line of the legendary rally-raid event.

At 45, he will experience his 11th Dakar. “I did seven on a motorbike and four by car”he rewinds. A surprising development, when we know the man's passion for two-wheelers, he who was even an official Sherco driver, the Nîmes team. “But at one point, I scared myself a little when I fell”he admits. It was before a Dakar. And Michael swapped the handlebars for the co-pilot's road book, after trying to move his sponsors from motorcycles to cars. But the budgets were too large for the family finances.

Father of the family

“When you start thinking about risk, it becomes dangerous”continues Michael Metge, who, in the meantime, has also seen the birth of children. Which is not trivial either. Double WRC world rally champion, in the early 2000s, Finnish Marcus Grönholm joked about the birth of his family, admitting that with each child, he lost around a tenth of a second per kilometer on special. If the differences between competitors are generally greater in rally raids, the birth of offspring necessarily influences the amount of risk to be taken and, therefore, performance.

Becoming a co-pilot, when you have always guided, obviously requires “to have confidence. Every time you change drivers, there is an adaptation time. But with certain pilots, like Jérôme de Sadeleer, I had as much fun as I did as a pilot”rejoices Michael. The duo finished second in the SSV** category last year. This year, he will board the vehicle of the Saudi SSV world champion, Yasir Seaidan, who came third in the same category, in 2024, with a certain Adrien Metge as co-driver, on a CR7 from Century Racing.

For Adrien, the eighth Dakar will also be the third as co-driver. He also completed five Dakars on a motorcycle, including one in the 11th^e place and another at 12^ealways with Sherco. And he doesn't let go of the handlebars, racing on Yamaha, the Brazilian rally-raid championship, with excellent results. “On the bike, in the Dakar, I really looked for the best possible result. In the car, it's different, it doesn't just depend on me. » And this year feels something new: Adrien leaves the SSV category to “the queen category”that of « auto ». “But the driver is good, Marcelo Gastaldi. He goes fast. » In the unknown, he does not set a goal. If not, perhaps, to finish…

“In Argentina, they were crazy! »

For the two brothers, in Saudi Arabia, the Dakar remains an adventure, “we set out every morning to discover new landscapes”enthuses Michael Metge. And this even if the “magnificent desert” struggles to compensate for “the human side” of the events run in South America, particularly on the tracks used by the WRC world rally championship, crowded with enthusiasts. “ We saw highways blocked, there were so many spectators. Or the crowd opens up in front of passing cars”recalling, in passing, certain images of the famous Group B of the 80s. “In Argentina, they were crazy! »summarizes Adrien, who still has sparkles in his eyes.

“South America appealed to me more for the diversity of the terrain,” he continues. Saudi Arabia is big, there's a lot of space, but everything is a bit the same. It's still desert, rocky, there isn't really a track. Sometimes we get lost. We're coming back. We find again. I also think the organization is increasingly trying to make it harder and harder to navigate. » Michael agrees, “South America was more varied. We had the tracks, towards Cordoba, the altitude in Bolivia and different deserts…” But Arabia presents, for the organizers, “an adequate playing field”, says Michael, who thinks that the event is set up there for a long time.

We are therefore, definitely, a long way from the Dakar which ended in Senegal, but with the Saudi financial resources which support the organization. Adrien didn't go as far as Dakar but “a lot in Morocco, on motorbikes, for rallies or training. We also meet veterans who did the Dakar at the time, who explain to us that it was an adventure. You have to remember that at one point, there wasn't all this technology: the organization didn't know where the runners were. Broken down, lost in the desert, we seriously had to ask ourselves questions”laughs Adrien. “As competitors, we love adventure and discovery,” says Michael. If the rally ever gets the opportunity to go somewhere else, that’s always good. » A speech which suggests that Michael Metge is far from having said goodbye to the Dakar. Adrien confirms it: he plans to repeat the event, after this 2025 edition. Whatever the new territory that would be called Dakar.

*Created in 1979, the rally-raid has long linked Paris to the Senegalese capital Dakar. It took place in Africa until 2008. That year, a few days before departure, four French people and three Mauritanian soldiers were assassinated in Mauritania. The race is canceled. The following year, it migrated to South America, retaining the name “Dakar”. It will take place on this continent until 2020, when it finds another playing field: Saudi Arabia.

**Car, motorcycle, truck… Drivers and co-drivers can compete in eight different categories. SSVs or “side by side vehicles” are light, two-seater all-terrain vehicles.