The 2018 Dakar is being hailed as one of the toughest in years, with route planners hurling every manner of terrain at competitors. Before the race, eventual Moto winner Matthias Walkner described the route “optimistically,” saying he’d expect “lots of sand and dunes in Peru, dunes at altitude in Bolivia, but also rocky paths, cold and wet conditions, and then torrid temperatures, river crossings, mountain roads and varied terrains in Argentina.” Sounds like a lovely jaunt, but he left out the part about the ATVs, cars, trucks and other assorted steel battering rams, all hell bent on getting to the same place as quickly as possible.
Walkner was accurate in his predictions, and managed the course better than any other, finishing with a time of 43 hours six minutes one…
