The 2013 Dakar Rally – the 5th edition in South America since Africa’s mythic paths have been ‘abandoned’ – will hit the road next January 5th and will go on untill the 20th (the last day is a no race day in which only the podium ceremony and celebrations will take place).

Some novelties this year:

– The Rally will start in Peru, move forward to Argentina and end in Chile for a total route of more than 8,ooo Km. The Chilean capital will host the finish of the Dakar for the first time. Last day podium ceremony and celebrations will be held at Plaza de la Constitución in Santiago, Capital of Chile.

– Since the Dakar ‘migrated’ to South America, the rest day has never been scheduled so long after the start. Making it to the Bivouac at Tucuman after 8 days racing will be a very meaningful mark for many drivers and teams.

– The desert stages will make their appearance in the first days of the rally. The Dakar has never started in the middle of the desert in all its history.

Stéphane Peterhansel (winner of last year’s edition), Nani Roma (runner-up in 2012) and Krzysztof Holowczyc (9th last year) are the three leaders of the X-Raid team and are all strong candidates to win the Dakar 2013.  They will all be again on the wheels of Mini. Krzysztof Holowczyc will have Portuguese Filipe Palmeiro as co-pilot.

Peterhansel has an amazing record of 11 Dakar Rally wins in 21 participations, the first 6 on Bikes and the other 5 on cars. So this year he can even his bike and cars scores if he wins again!

Other strong contestants are Nasser-al-Attiyah and Carlos Sainz (both with Buggy), as well as Robby Gordon (Hummer) 2nd last year on the roads but disqualified in the end.

Super Athletes – Nasser Al-Attiyah: Dakar Winner and Olympic Medalist in Skeet Shooting

Portuguese driver Carlos Sousa – 6th last year – will bear number 308 driving for Team Great Wall and should be again within Top 10 as he already did 8 times. His best place was 4th in 2003 edition yet in Africa.

On Bikes, Spaniard Marc Coma will be out due to an injury in his left shoulder during the course of the Morocco Rally. The fight for victory should be between Frenchman and winner of last year edition – Cyril Despres (KTM) – , Portuguese Hélder Rodrigues with an Honda (3rd last year) and Jordi Viladoms (4th in 2012 – KTM). Despres has won the Rally 5 times and finished other 5 times in a podium place (4 of them as runner-up).

The full race calendar is the following:

DATE	START	FINISH
05/01/2013	Lima	Pisco
06/01/2013	Pisco	Pisco
07/01/2013	Pisco	Nazca
08/01/2013	Nazca	Arequipa
09/01/2013	Arequipa	Arica
10/01/2013	Arica	Calama
11/01/2013	Calama	Salta
12/01/2013	Salta	San Miguel de Tucumán
13/01/2013	Rest day
14/01/2013	San Miguel de Tucumán	Córdoba
15/01/2013	Córdoba	La Rioja
16/01/2013	La Rioja	Fiambalá
17/01/2013	Fiambalá	Copiapó
18/01/2013	Copiapó	La Serena
19/01/2013	La Serena	Santiago

More detailed information about each stage distance, starting times and other details can be checked in the Official Dakar Race Document on:

http://www.dakar.com/dakar/2013/docs/parcours-km-US.pdf

If you want to know more about all 2013 Major Sport Events Calendar you should take a look on our earlier post:

 WorldSportsIntel Day 100! Summary of Some Useful Posts for 2013