The 2017 Dakar will begin in Asunción, which will make Paraguay the twenty-ninth country through which the largest race in the world will take place and its capital one of the host cities in the history of the rally.
The Spanish Marc Coma, Dakar sports director after abandoning the professional motorcycle, was in charge of presenting today the 39th edition of the race, which will start on January 2 from Asunción and will be “an odyssey” lasting twelve days, as promised .
«The route will link three capitals from Asunción, Paraguay, to the rest stage in La Paz (Bolivia) and its arrival in Buenos Aires (Argentina). It is a Dakar that enters a new dimension in South America ”, explained Coma.
The rally will cover a length of 9,000 kilometers between the three countries, in which it will be the ninth edition in South America since in 2009 the organization decided to abandon the historic route along the northwestern coast of Africa for safety reasons.
It is expected that 550 pilots and crew members of 50 nationalities will take part in the race on board 347 vehicles, including quads, motorcycles, cars and trucks, of which 63% will arrive in Buenos Aires, according to the organizers.
From the start of the engines in Asunción, the rally will have in front of it the first part of a journey that will take it to Argentina and then to La Paz, Bolivia, where I know where the first and only rest day will take place.
«From there, the rally will make a 180-degree turn towards the south, discovering landscapes that the Dakar family still does not know, such as Lake Titicaca in the Bolivian part, and it will go down towards the south and try to reach Buenos Aires ”, Coma commented on the route.
Coma pointed out that five of the twelve stages will be special in height, and that at least four will have more than 500 kilometers, in addition to one that will exceed 700 kilometers “so that it really becomes an adventure,” added the Dakar sports director.
«We are going to try to introduce two marathon stages, because I think they are part of the Dakar spirit, where you not only have to run 100%, but you have to manage the mechanics and your limited resources and I think this is important ”, commented the five-time champion of the motorcycle event.
The presentation of the rally was held in a hotel in Asunción in a ceremony attended by Paraguayan authorities such as the head of the National Sports Secretariat, Víctor Pecci, and the head of the National Tourism Secretariat, Marcela Bacigalupo.
During his speech, Pecci assured that citizens will be able to enjoy the “most important event in the history of Paraguayan sport at the event level.”
The Dakar raid rally, promoted by the French organization Amaury Sports Organization (ASO), will celebrate 39 years of history in the 2017 edition, among which it will have traveled 29 different countries since its original edition between France and Senegal and which has been held since 2009. in South America for security reasons.
The tour of Africa was suspended after the assassinations of four French and three Mauritanian soldiers that occurred in the days preceding the departure, and after the terrorist threat discovered by the French authorities who marked the rally as an attack target. EFE
Asunción celebrates its entry into the Dakar family in 2017
