Sam Sunderland from Red Bull KTM Factory Team rides during a test run in Erfoud, Morocco on September 20, 2016.

© Flavien Duhamel/Red Bull Content Pool

Rally Raid

Can the Dakar’s 10,000km be summed up in 5 words?

Watch the world’s top offroaders doing their best to describe what the ultimate rally means to them.

Written by Tim Sturtridge

1 min readPublished on 02.12.2016 · 20:11 UTC

There’s no easy way to explain the Dakar

1 min

The Dakar Rally in 5 words

Can our Dakar Rally athletes sum up the race in five words?

There aren't many things in life that can be described as both fun and torture, but those are two of the first words that come to mind when discussing the Dakar Rally. The two-week test of mental and mechanical resilience returns to South America in January and the world’s best offroaders are all packing their bags to take part.

To get us in the mood for the upcoming action we put Sébastien Loeb, Stéphane Peterhansel, Nasser Al-Attiyah, Sam Sunderland and Toby Price on the spot to gauge their opinion on what awaits them in Paraguay, Bolivia and Argentina. This quintet have a total of 15 Dakar titles between them and realistic ambitions of winning this time around, so let’s hear what the experts have to say.

Watch rally royalty sum up the Dakar in the clip above.

Head to our dedicated 2017 Dakar Rally event page for more news and videos

Part of this story

Toby Price

Australian off-road and rally raid racing legend Toby Price has won a host of national championships and is a two-time Dakar winner on two wheels.

Sam Sunderland

Sam Sunderland is a two-time Dakar Rally champion and GasGas Factory Racing rider who's conquered the world's toughest races. Now, he's aiming for his biggest challenge yet.

Stéphane Peterhansel

French driver Stéphane Peterhansel is a legend of the Dakar Rally, having won a record 14 titles – six on motorcycles and eight in a car.

Nasser Al Attiyah

Nasser Al-Attiyah is the sporting hero of his native Qatar who's won the Dakar Rally on five occasions while also excelling in skeet shooting.

Sébastien Loeb

French driver Sébastien Loeb's domination of the rally-driving world has earned him the nickname of Le Patron, or 'The Boss'.