VOL. 50 ISSUE 8 FEBRUARY 26, 2013 P61
BY PAUL CARRUTHERS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY M. MARAGNI/KTM IMAGES
A
s young boy, Cyril Despres would watch
the hordes of motorcycles, trucks and
various forms of racecars that make up
the Paris-Dakar rally move through his town in
France en route to the start of the race. The rally
would then disappear to the African continent,
but it was in France long enough to make those
who raced in the world���s toughest rally be heroes throughout Europe.
The young Despres liked what he saw and set
a path toward one day winning the race.
But wins in Dakar don���t come easy. As is the
case with the Isle of Man TT, winning the Dakar often requires years of practice. You need
experience, a strong team and a strong teammate (a ���domestique��� or water boy) that
has your back no matter what to even
get you to the point of being competitive. From there you need to race
quickly across the desert and
over mountains��� without getting lost. And you do it again
and again for two weeks until
compiling some 5000 miles. It���s a
race where navigation is key.
Still, success didn���t come overnight - even for the talented Frenchman with a knack for navigation.
Despres started his Dakar career in 2000 with a 16th place overall finish. In 2005, he won the race
for the first time. Following that first
victory, Despres swapped wins with
his rival Marc Coma for the next five
years, but this year Coma suffered an injury in the Moroccan Rally that kept him out
Cyril Despres: Five times a
winner of the world���s toughest
race ��� the Dakar Rally.