“A challenge for those who go. A dream for those who stay behind’’ – the inspirational motto coined by Thierry Sabine, founder of the original Paris-Dakar Rally, who happened on the idea of the world’s toughest rally when, back in 1977, he got lost on his motorbike in the Libyan desert during the Abidjan-Nice Rally.
Saved from the sands in extremis, he returned to France, still enthralled by the landscape, and promising to share his fascination with as many people as possible.
Convinced that his idea would spark an epic race pitting man and machine against the harshest elements, and carry a message of friendship between all men, the Dakar Rally has generated innumerable sporting and human stories over the course of almost 50 years.
