Upgrade to enjoy this feature!
Vital MX fantasy is free to play, but Premium users receive great benefits. Premium benefits include:
- View and download rider stats
- Pick trends
- Create a private league
- And more!
Only $10 for all 2026 SX, MX, and SMX series.
Tomorrow the real Dakar begins!
Here’s hoping for a safe adventure for everyone!
Barring a mechanical I think he gets it done again. He’s probably done more road books this year than all his competitors combined.
It’s time. The Americans Are Coming.
I know the KTM team have been going hard for the past 4 months. Toby and Sanders both had to stay over in europe during covid without coming back to aus.
The Shop
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Free shipping: VITALMX
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
I don’t see other guys or teams doing that. I see them spend a week or two a few times a year in the desert.
Seems to me like Toby and Chucky would be better off training Australia rather than Europe, not many open deserts to run road books in Europe.
I also think the road book being handed out 15 minutes before the start of each stage helps him as well. KTM can’t have their map man give the riders a Google earth rundown the night before anymore.
https://youtu.be/1pKNI7ZtNhM
The problem was 2 week quarentine each way and the amount of training time that loses, where ever they normally go its prettg sinilar terrain to dakar. Not where it is. Yeah australia would be a good place but the deserts are so far away from where they both live, these no resources of factory teams for rally here and australia isn't easy to get around.
Yeah lets not kid ourselves all the factory teams had map men and were doing everything they could for an advantage.
Will be interesting for sure.
It seems many top level riders got lost on the first full day, but Brabec seems to have had the worst outcome. Lost something like 18 minutes.
Navigation is difficult, no matter how much you practice it back on your home turf.
S**t happens, and, he's got a lot of Days and a Lot of Ks to make it up.
And, anything can, and may happen, to all of the competitors.
My only hope each year, is that All riders stay safe and healthy.
Good start for Skyler Howes!
Shorty with a solid ride too, but I’m nervous about his bike. Apparently the Yamaha team changed a piston every day last year so the new rule of 1 piston without penalty could stretch those bikes too far....
Ricky will have to attack some tomorrow, he can’t afford to wait to chip away at the time lost today.
It’s gonna be a good one fellas, drama already and so much racing to go!
Ricky is not in trouble yet, plenty of time to bring that back in.
Brabec and Barreda said a GPS error sent them the wrong way, we’ll see what (if anything) come of that.
I dont know enough about the navigation, but if they don't navigate via GPS, how did a GPS error cause an issue?
If I understand it, the GPS does unlock once you're close the the waypoint. Perhaps that was the issue?
Pit Row
If your up right now. Dakar.com has a great live tracking feature this year.
After three very impressive participations and especially a 6th-placed finish obtained in 2019, American Andrew Short has met with disappointment on the second stage. He ground to a halt after 273 km of the special due to a mechanical problem that he has not been able to fix. Convinced that it was not necessary to wait for help from his assistance team, he has thrown in the towel and has been airlifted from the stage by one of the organiser’s helicopters
Post a reply to: Dakar Rally 2021