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C.S. Santosh: Dreaming of Dakar R a l l y , arguably the most dangerous in the world, and even managed to complete it in his first attempt. Organized by the Amaury Sport Organisation, the Dakar Rally, between Paris and Dakar, Senegal, started in 1978. When security issues in Mauritania led to the cancellation of the 2008 race, it was moved to South America. Riders have to cover 9,000km in 14 days—each day is a stage—at an average speed of over 100km/h in settings that keep changing, from river routes to rocky terrain to salt flats to desert dunes, sometimes all in one day, and in temperatures ranging from sub-zero to 45 degrees Celsius. Electronic navigation isn’t allowed, the drivers have to rely on the roadbook, a turn-by-turn guide to each day’s route. Barring their gear, this little scroll of paper is the most important object during the 14 days of the rally. No wonder, then, that many riders fail even to finish all the stages. In the inaugural edition, only 74 out of 182 riders made it to the finish line. Last year, 220 vehicles—97 motorcycles, 22 quads, 63 cars and 38 trucks—out of the 318 that started the rally from Asunción, Paraguay, managed to finish. Around 70 people, many of them competitors, have died in the rally since 1978. In the Dakar Rally, riders have to cover 9,000km in 14 days at an average speed of over 100km/ h in settings that keep changing, from river routes to rocky terrain to salt flats to desert dunes, sometimes all in one day, and in temperatures ranging from sub-zero to 45 degrees Celsius In an article for The Telegraph in 2015, adventure athlete Tobias Mews described the stages of the Dakar as a set from a Mad Max movie. “In C.S. Santosh: Dreaming of Dakar shadowy corners, knackered drivers talked survival tactics with their team managers. You didn’t need to hear what they were saying. Their haggard, tired and grime ridden faces said it all,” he wrote in the article. Santosh won the Raid de Himalaya, India’s toughest Santosh won the Raid de Himalaya in record time rally, in record time in his first attempt, in 2012. in his first attempt, in 2012. ‘I had told my parents “I had told my parents that I’d hang up my boots that I’d hang up my boots after that,’ says Santosh. after that,” says Santosh. But the Raid led to a new But the Raid led to a new series of events that series of events that eventually took him to Dakar. eventually took him to Dakar It takes a year to prepare for Dakar, says Santosh, 16 JANUARY 2018