Dakar is back! June 08

The 2009 Dakar will take place in Argentina and Chile from the 3rd to the 18th of January.

A.S.O. and Dakar director, Etienne Lavigne, promised an amazing course - a 9000 km loop including 6000kms of special stages between Buenos Aires, Valparaiso and Buenos Aires. The planned route features terrain similar in many respects to Dakar's traditional North West African landscape of sand dunes, rocky plains and scrub. Ensuring the event will remain a challenge, the 2009 edition has accepted the invitation of Argentina and Chile, countries with which A.S.O. was in contact for several years.

Organisers were seduced by the discovery of territories where navigation, sand, and crossings will be on the menu. Argentina and Chile gather all the ingredients for a fantastic Dakar both in terms of the level of the varied topography and the splendour of the landscape. Registrations for this new challenge were open from May 15. Those competitors who registered for the aborted 2008 edition will have priority and will benefit during a month from a similar tariff as this year's one.

www.dakar.com has further details.