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Husqvarna TE449 RR Dakar Race Bike by Speedbrain

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To be entirely honest, we don’t follow the adventure racing arena as much as we should, giving only a little bit of press to the world-famous Dakar Rally at the start of each year. So, we really can’t do justice to what Husqvarna and Speedbrain are doing with this factory-backed Husqvarna TE449 RR Dakar bike.

The photos are surprisingly detailed though, and are probably as close as you will ever get to a proper works rally machine, and Husqvarna gives a good accounting of the bike’s progression and current development. Rather than fake our own rewording of their story, read it after the jump. It’s pretty interesting.

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Bikes

2013 Honda CRF450 Rally – Big Red is Ready for Dakar

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Our first official news from the showroom floor of INTERMOT is Honda’s race bike for the 2013 Dakar Rally. Rumored, teased, and now official, the 2013 Honda CRF450 Rally is as the name implies, a CRF450 built out and specially suited for adventure rally racing. The fuel-injected off-roader will get its first outing at the Rally of Morocco, which starts October 14th.

Honda intends on fielding five riders on the 2013 Honda CRF450 Rally bike: 11-time Baja 1000 winner Johnny Campbell (USA), Helder Rodrigues (Portugal), Felipe Zanol (Brazil), Sam Sunderland (United Kingdom), and Javier Pizzolito (Argentina). Expect to see Honda CRF450 Rally on the Dakar Rally starting line come January 1, 2013 in South America, where it will take on the KTM contingency of Marc Coma and Cyril Despres.

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Racing

The 2013 Dakar Rally – Peru, Argentina, & Chile

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The Dakar Rally has already released its route for the 2013 Dakar, and the famous endurance race will once again compete in South America (Africa what?). Choosing to do a reversal of its previous routes, The Dakar will travel from north to south by starting in Lima, Peru and ending in Santiago, Chile.

Though this will be the fifth time the Dakar Rally has run in South America, the 2013 edition should be a grueling one right off the bat. Since the race is starting in Lima, it means competitors will be in the sand dunes of Peru right away — the first time the race has ever started in the desert. With all eyes watching to see if Cyril Despres can defend his 2012 victory against rival Marc Coma, racing action for the 2013 Dakar Rally starts Janurary 5th and ends January 20th.

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Cyril Despres Wins Fourth Dakar Rally Title

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After battling with KTM teammate Marc Coma for the entire duration of the 2012 Dakar Rally, Cyril Despres bested the Catalan rider on the final stage, and claimed his fourth Dakar title. Despres won only four stages of the Rally (compared to Coma’s five stages), but the Frenchman was able to cling to his overall lead, despite finishing behind Coma on the last stage. With The Dakar concluding in Lima for the first time in history, Despres’ triumph brought KTM its eleventh consecutive Dakar win. After a critical time penalty was levied against Marc Coma, Cyril Despres won the rally with a 53 minute margin, though the racing was decidedly closer than that number implies.

Sunday’s final stage was only 23km long (14.29 miles) and largely ceremonial, with Saturday’s penultimate round truly deciding who would win the 2012 Dakar Rally. With only several minutes of time separating the two riders as they entered the last true round of racing, Coma unfortunately damaged his gearbox after a big jump. Getting lost in the process, Coma was able to nurse his KTM back through the stage, though he had a 45 minute time penalty levied upon him for swapping-in his third motor, which cost the Catalan his chance of a fourth Dakar win, and allowed Despres to coast to victory during Sunday’s final round.

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How Do You Get Halfway Through The Dakar?

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The Dakar Rally might be one of the most grueling things you can do on two wheels, and for motorcyclists, it embodies the ultimate expression of adventure motorcycling. As if traversing thousands of miles while going full-tilt wasn’t hard enough, a proper Dakar Rally bid requires an enormous amount of resources to undertake. Crossing the halfway point this week, Marc Coma’s team released a nice infographic explaining the various resources the team has used in getting only half of the way through the rally.

With three more days of hard riding, Coma currently sits two minutes and twenty-two seconds behind his rival and fellow KTM rider Cyril Despres (the Frenchman explains his riding style in a video found after the jump). The KTM duo is now in the home-strech of the rally, and will be battling down to the wire for each rider’s fourth Dakar victory. Speaking after today’s stage, Coma is not optimistic about his abilities to catch Despres, but wisely warns that anything can happen during The Dakar.

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Racing

Stage 6 of the Dakar Rally Cancelled

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The world’s top adventure riders have been down in South America the past week, competing in the 33rd running of the Dakar Rally. Racing through South America since 2009, the 2012 Dakar will be taking competitors through some of the toughest terrain available in Argentina, Chile, and Peru, as The Dakar continues to live up to its name as one of the toughest races in motorsport, and this year’s rally has tragically already claimed its first life, as motorcyclist Jorge Martinez Boero of Argentina died from a cardiac arrest, after crashing during the rally’s first stage.

For Stage 6 (Fiambala-Copiapo), the weather and terrain were apparently too inhospitable, even by Dakar standards. Set to cross the Andes Mountain Range for the seventh time in the rally’s history, snow and rain at the 15,420 foot Paso de San Francisco pass was too inclement for Chilean authorities to keep the crossing open. Accordingly, today’s stage will be a convoy of all the Dakar Rally vehicles, with the rally’s itinerary changed after the border crossing in Chile from Argentina.

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Francisco Lopez Caught Stealing Gas During Dakar Rally

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In an event that’s probably more embarrassing than nefarious, Aprilia’s Francisco “Chaleco” Lopez was caught by the camera of a Dakar Rally spectator stealing gas from a parked motorcycle near the race course. Lopez didn’t get too far in the process as several local policeman were nearby and gave the Chilean rider a stern talking to…of course when you speak the language, we imagine it’s a lot easier to talk your way out of a ticket than end up in some South American jail. Check the video after the jump, and let us know if you think Lopez should have been handed a time penalty for his actions.

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News

Marc Coma Edges Out Despres for His 3rd Dakar Rally – Brings Home KTM’s 10th Consecutive Dakar Victory

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Because KTM employs some of the best adventure racers in the world, there was little debate that the Austrian manufacturer would win its 10th consecutive Dakar Rally, on this the 33rd running of the race. However which of KTM’s top riders, Coma or Despres, would take the checkered flag this weekend at Buenos Aires was a question of some contention among adventure racing fans, as going into the latter stages of the event, it was either rider’s race to win.

That debate can finally come to a conclusion thought, as after racing over more than 3,000 miles on one of the most grueling Dakars to-date, Spaniard Marc Coma edged out Frenchman Cyril Despres for the overall rally win by a mere 15 minutes, which included a 10 minute penalty that Despres incurred earlier in the racing week. Photos, results, and more after the jump.

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Dakar Stage 5: Race Officials Give Marc Coma Time Back After Stopping for Injured Rider

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To call the Dakar dangerous is probably an understatement, as the rally has been fraught with stories of peril from its very inception. Often alone in some of the most remote terrain in the world, riders rely primarily on themselves for their safety, but the sport is marked with moments where participants put aside competition to help each other.

Stage 5 of the 2011 Dakar Rally had one of those stories yesterday, as KTM rider, and overall race leader Marc Coma found himself as the first person to come across an unconscious Olivier Pain on the race course. Coma, who himself had sustained a fall earlier in the day, stopped at Pain’s crash site and activated the unconscious rider’s emergency beacon. Coma stayed with with the fallen rider until his water carrier, Joan Pedrero, arrived on the scene.

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2011 Dakar Rally Starts Tomorrow

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Making its third start from South America, the 33rd Dakar Rally officially kicks off on New Year’s Day tomorrow in Buneos Aires. Making a quick trip to Victoria, Argentina (174 mils as the crow flies), the 2011 Dakar Rally competitors will have to contest with what is being considered a more difficult and technical course than last year’s route. In total there are 445 competitors (180 motorcycles, 140 cars, 67 trucks, & 32 ATVs) entering the race, but history tells us a smaller number will finish the course.

KTM’s Cyril Despres is favored in the motorcycle category, after winning the 2010 rally, but he will have to contend with fellow KTM rider Marc Coma and Francisco Lopez Contardo, whose Aprilia has been extensively improved upon over last year’s debut model, and could be a real contender this year in the Dakar. Of course rally purists will still lament the fact the race isn’t taking place in Africa, but the Dakar is getting back to its roots a bit, and has limited the use of global positioning satellites. Photos and video after the jump.

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