After two weeks of hard slog through the deserts of Saudi Arabia , the 46th edition of the Dakar Rally once again saw a Honda rider on the top step of the podium . In its fifth year in Saudi Arabia , the 2024 edition was undoubtedly the toughest Dakar so far – with longer stages , extreme terrains , and confusing navigation right from the start . Two new formats of racing were also introduced by the organisers to add more spice – a marathon stage early on in the race , and a 48-hour Chrono stage during which the competitors were split across several bivouacs - away from their teams , and surviving on bare minimum essentials . As many as one-third of the competitors who started the race retired from the rally across the 14 days of grind .
HONDA THE TEAM TO BEAT To call this year ’ s Dakar a triumph for Honda is an understatement , the Japanese brand took to the desert with a full team of incredibly talented riders and from the outset looked to be the team to beat . While Honda ’ s large team saw its share of
riders bowing out of the rally for a variety of reasons , first place once again went to American Ricky Brabec who made history as the only American to notch two Dakar victories into his belt , following his 2020 win . After spending much of the first week amongst the front runners , Brabec took the reins after the gruelling 48-hour Chrono stage and , despite a one-second margin to second place Ross Branch at the end of stage seven , the Californian never looked back and rode to a faultless Dakar win with nearly 11 minutes in hand . “ It ’ s a nice way to start the year with a victory ,” said Brabec . “ It wasn ’ t easy as the course was really tough and so was the competition . Ross [ Branch ] and my own team kept me on my toes , but not just me , I think we were keeping everyone on each other ’ s toes . It was definitely a fight to the end for everyone . I ’ m really happy we ’ re all here and all safe and we can go home . This time was a little bit different as I feel like this one was more earned as it was a lot tougher . In 2020 , we had a big gap from the
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