Week two of Dakar. It’s been pretty spectacular. I believe it’s two to three times the distance of recent Dakar rallies. This week they’re in a vast area called the Empty Quarter. It’s incredible. Nothing but dunes and ancient dried lake beds.
I could watch this all day.
In other news, Carlos Sainz crashed out yesterday. Got stretchered away in a helicopter, persuaded them to take him back to the car while they were in the air so he could limp the car home and get it fixed to continue racing today, only to be pulled out of the competition because the car was beyond repair.
Also the bikes are insanely close. Keeping in mind that the lead car is an hour ahead of the competition, yesterday the top two bikes were three seconds apart after well over 30 hours racing.