As the much-anticipated Dakar Rally looms ever closer, Yamaha and Helder Rodrigues are ever confident in their preparations for the 34th edition of this monstrous race. Having finished third overall in the 2011 Dakar Rally, Rodrigues is determined to better his results in the rally and somehow take down the KTM stranglehold in South America. Finishing on the rostrum in only his fifth attempt of the race brought with it a stage victory and it’s with this success that Rodrigues – together with his YZ450F Rally – knows he is capable of being in contention for victory once the clock starts on New Years Day.
Rodrigues: “My objective is to finish even better. Like last year I worked all season to improve. This year’s route should allow me to show that I know how to take on the pitfalls and complexities of the rally.”
Rodrigues is confident in his abilities out in the desert
Other notable riders include several Frenchmen. Enduro special Olivier Pain conquered a stage of the ’11 incarnation but was then unlucky to be ruled out through injury approaching the halfway point when he crashed and broke his left wrist. He classified ninth in 2010 and at the age of 29 is one of the younger competitors in the crop. Countryman David Casteu was a Dakar vice champion in 2007 and now joins the Yamaha Motor France-backed team alongside Pain with serious goals on his eighth run at the rally before a look towards the four-wheel category in the coming years.
Outside of a strong French line-up another rider to watch will be Jonah Street, who will again be steering WR450Fs from the confines of his own team for the second year in succession. The American suffered an inconsistent rally in 2011 but his victory in stage nine was the undoubted highlight. He classified 12th in January but is now hoping to reach the same level of performance that guided him to seventh place overall in 2010.
Among the Women’s competition FIM Cross Country Rallies World Champion Camelia Liparoti will be aiming to better her previous finish of 10th.
The 2012 Dakar will involve two extra days of racing – now fourteen – as the bikes, quads, cars and trucks, plough a course from the Atlantic ocean on one side of the continent to the Pacific on the other. The diverse terrain of the Andes and the Atacama Desert now with a trip into the heart of Peru awaits; mountain paths, canyons and forestry will turn to dunes and beach backdrops. Endurance, resistance, mechanical guile and navigational skill are just some of the characteristics that will prove vital.