The L'Équipe channel, which broadcasts the legendary Dakar car race for the second year in a row, is pulling out all the stops with an XXL system and a new well-known consultant.
Let's go for the Dakar 2025! The 47th edition of the car rally takes place from this Friday January 3, 2025 and until the 17th in Saudi Arabia. With no less than a hundred hours of airtime devoted to the event and four daily broadcasts over this period, the L'Équipe channel is offering XXL coverage this year, reinforced by the good audiences for the 2024 edition (with more than 720,000 viewers on average in front The Big Summary of the stage, hosted every evening live by journalist France Pierron). Main new feature: a renowned recruit in the person of Luc Alphand, multiple ski champion, double winner of the Dakar in 1999 and 2006 and former consultant to France Télévisions. At 59 years old, this athlete once again becomes an actor in this legendary race and confided in Télé-Loisirs.
“I try to bring a different vision to the race” : Luc Alphand talks about his role as consultant during the Dakar 2025
Tele-Leisure : What is your role in this Dakar 2025?
Luc Alphand: Before each start, I ask the riders a few questions before following the motorcycle race from the air, in a helicopter. In the evening, I appear on France Perron's show, Dakar: The Grand Summary. I try to bring my analysis and a slightly different vision on the race.
What do you think of the race route which once again takes place exclusively in Saudi Arabia?
We have a return to races in real desert but there is no longer the diversity of South America in the 2010s. The choice of the location of the Dakar is always complex: there are economic and geopolitical realities to take into account. Everyone would also like to return to Africa, but it’s complicated…
Luc Alphand refused several television shows including Dancing with the stars !
What memories do you have of the Dakar?
At the end of my first participation, in 1998, I promised myself I would never go back there again. I had to give up two days before the finish. I was picked up by Tuaregs in the desert before being repatriated by helicopter. In the end, I did 15 races and then I became a consultant!
With your notoriety, have you been approached to participate in TV shows?
Several times, but I refused because I didn't have time. Dancing with the stars, The Celebrity Farm et Dropped where this terrible accident took place in 2015. I would like to make shows where we can take the time to talk. With Frédéric Lopez, it would be good. And then I will also be on France Télévisions, during the Winter Olympics in Milan in 2026.
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