The 43rd edition of the Dakar Rally is underway in Saudi Arabia. We?ll be sharing daily updates from our friends at WESTx1000. Stay tuned. 
Begin Press Release: 

SS11: Chopped
Teams Take on the Most Decisive Stage of the Race, Who Will Make the Cut"    

Dakar is a thinking man?s race. An exercise of willpower, perseverance ? a measurement of heart. There isn?t a person here who won’t be tested. Who doesn?t give a piece of themselves just to arrive at the bivouac (six PCR tests later?). And after 15 days of wearing the same two t-shirts, freezing to death at least one night, fending off heat stroke and diaper rash, slipping in and out of delirium and contracting just a tiny stomach bug ? at the end of the race, so it?s ok ? you?re transformed. At first it feels like you?ve morphed into some kind of oversized amoeba. But, when the dust settles, you?re on a plane headed home perhaps, you find it?s something else much more significant. Just as you have given a part of you to the experience, the experience also travels back with you. A bit of this race finds itself a home in your soul and stays forever, growing every rally, deepening its roots. This happens each time you come back, and every year you show up to the bivouac, you become more and more familiar, more at peace and then the race starts, and you get sucked into the chaos all over again. Before you know it, nearly three weeks of blood, sweat and tears comes to an end too fast. Ready or not, we al...