The world’s most famous desert race takes place from 3 to 17 January 2026 in Saudi Arabia. Here is the number of stages, the protagonists in cars and those on motorbikes, where and how to follow it
Everything is ready for the Dakar 2026number 48 in history: it belongs, as usual, to the most famous race on the planet off-road kick off the new motorsport season. Just enough time to celebrate the new year and the pilots are called to tackle the first kilometers of the prologue route on January 3rd. Once again it will be theSaudi Arabia – as from 2020 onwards – to host the Dakar, with the city of Yanbuoverlooking the Red Sea, acting as the nerve center of the race, being the starting and finishing location. In this article we try to summarize everything you need to know: dates, stages, program, route, where and how to follow the race.
The numbers
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The charm of the Dakar has always brought with it a series of numbers. Yes, because if just thinking about facing a two-week challenge with the weather among the dunes of a desert is synonymous with madness, this concept is to the nth degree if you examine it with the numbers in hand. After the 23km timed section of the prologue on 3 January (with 75km of transfer), the caravan made up of well 812 participants And 433 vehicles he will have six intense days of competition ahead of him before resting in the capital Riyadh on January 10th. From the next day onwards, a whole week in the saddle (or in the cockpit) before returning – on January 17th – to Yanbu. In short, a huge circular tour of 7,994 km (of which 4,880 timed sections) for cars and 7,906 km (of which 4,748 timed sections) for motorbikes. Although conceptually very far from the original idea of Thierry Sabinethe race organized by Sao promises to be one of the most grueling editions in history, even more for the distances than for the difficulty of the route itself.
Path
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The 2026 regulatory change sees the elimination – by the organizers – of the 48-hour time trial stage, in favor of the reintroduction of two Marathon stages, one in the first and one in the second week of the race. We remind you that during these stages the pilots will not be able to receive assistance from their mechanics during the night bivouac. The first will be between stage 4 and stage 5, which will take the caravan from Alula to Hail, with over 800 km of timed sections just by adding these two stages; the second will instead be between stage 9 and stage 10, when the riders will have to face the dunes of Wadi Ad Dawasir to reach Bisha (also in this case we are close to the 800 km of special).
Motorcycle protagonists
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We will delve deeper into the protagonists of the 2026 Dakar with specific articles, but for the moment it is enough to know that among the motorcycles there is once again an open challenge between Ktm (Daniel Sanders, Edgar Canet and Luciano Benavides) and Honda (Ricky Brabec, Skyler Howes, Tosha Scareina and Adrien Van Beveren). The spotlight will also be on the Sherco (Bradley Cox, Lorenzo Santolino) and Hero (Ignacio Cornejo, Ross Branch and Tobias Ester) teams, while Gazzetta Motori tester Tiziano Internò (number 93) will, as usual, provide insights and focus from a different point of view of the race on his Rally Pov channels. Manuel Lucchese will not start the race, the unfortunate protagonist of a bad fall during a training session a few weeks before the start of the race and still focused on recovering physically after an initial operation. We will delve deeper into the protagonists, outsiders and other Italians in a dedicated article.
Car protagonists
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Among the cars it is up to Yazeed Al Rajhi to start with number 1 (or rather, 201 to be precise, following the numbering given by Aso). The spotlight is on the Toyota GR team, competing with the Hiluxes driven by Henk Lategan, Seth Quintero and Toby Price, the latter making his second appearance at the Dakar on four wheels after being among the protagonists of the two. Dacia, with the support of Prodrive, believes deeply in the Sandrider project, even more so after having signed two absolute champions such as Sébastien Loeb and Nasser Al-Attiyah, ready to support Cristina Gutierrez. Ford M-Sport responds by entrusting the Raptors to Carlos Sainz, Mattias Ekström, Nani Roma and Mitch Guthrie. There is no shortage of notable names such as Martin Prokop and Guillaume De Mévius. Debut on four wheels for Kevin Benavides, winner of the 2023 Dakar with the Ktm Factory, while Stephane Peterhansel will launch the Defender project in the Stock category. Also in this case, we will delve deeper into the protagonists of the four wheels with a dedicated article.
Where and how to follow it
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The daily summary of the Dakar 2026 will be provided by Sky Sportswith images that will also be visible on SkyGo, Now TV And Discovery+as well as on the official Facebook and YouTube channels of Rally Dakar. It will also be possible to follow the race with live timing and GPS tracker directly on the Dakar website.
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