Cyril
Despres
France
·
Rally Raid
Date of birth | 24 January 1974 |
|---|---|
Place of birth | Nemours, France |
Age | 51 |
Nationality | France |
Career start | 1998 |
Disciplines | Rally Raid Car |
Born to parents who ran restaurants in his native France, Cyril looked destined to follow in the family tradition… or at least, not deviate from it quite so much.
However, the young wannabe took matters into his own hands when, with an entrepreneurial aptitude to make his parents proud, he caught a train to Paris and bought his first bike.
In 1998, Despres started riding Enduro and in the very same year, he became the French Enduro Champion. Despite his success, money was still tight and with his greater ambition came greater expense.
In 2000, in order to race in his first Dakar Rally, Cyril sold 6,000 bottles of wine to raise the necessary money. The gamble paid off when he finished 16th, announcing his arrival on the extreme Enduro scene.
With greater success came better races and better bikes and in 2001 Cyril gained his first Dakar stage win. In the next few years, Cyril managed to bag a third and second place in the race.
Cyril's career really took off when he claimed
his first Dakar Championship title in 2005 and once he'd tasted victory, it appeared there was no stopping him on his way to the top.
He's gone on to win the Dakar a further four times (2007, 2010, 2012 and 2013), while finishing on the podium every year that the rally was staged from 2003 to 2013 inclusive. In 2014, Cyril once again put in a solid effort – claiming podium spots on eight of the 13 stages – and just missed out on a podium finish with fourth overall.
But his ambition knows no boundaries. The Frenchman decided to give a 180 degree turn to his sports career. Peugeot's re-entry to the Dakar Rally was an opportunity Despres could not miss. Having Carlos Sainz and Stéphane Peterhansel as team-mates, Cyril debuted in the car category driving a Peugeot 2008 DKR.
A steady Dakar debut on four wheels was then backed up with a second-place finish at the 2015 China Silk Road Rally. The runners-up result alongside co-driver David Castera boosted the duo’s confidence enough that they were able to make a significant leap up the rankings when they returned to the Dakar, finishing seventh overall in 2016. Cyril’s rapid rise also saw him take wins at the Silk Way Rally in 2016 and 2017.
He returned to South America in 2017 to race alongside fellow Frenchman Castera in the PEUGEOT 3008 DKR, taking third spot overall – his first podium finish in a car.
Cyril raced a MINI John Cooper Works Buggy as part of the X-raid MINI JCW Team at the 2019 Dakar Rally and finished in fifth place overall, with co-driver Jean Paul Cottret.
For the 2020 Rally Dakar in Saudi Arabia, Cyril joined the Red Bull Off-Road Team USA as mentor to talented young American drivers Blade Hildebrand and Mitch Guthrie Jr.
The team drove an Overdrive OT3 in the Side-by-Side (SxS) category and deep into the event, Despres went beyond his brief as team leader (after winning a stage early on) by giving Guthrie his engine so the young American could continue in the Dakar Experience Class.
At the 2021 Dakar Rally, a strong second week at the rally helped Cyril achieve a top ten finish in the car race. However, the pair’s final result was always secondary to their data collection during the rally, part of an ambitious project to compete at the 2023 Dakar in a hydrogen-powered vehicle named GEN-Z.