Official start list and “fast facts” preview for the 2025 Dakar Rally motorcycle category.

The administrative and technical scrutineering is complete and a total of 335 vehicles have been approved to participate in the 47th edition of the Dakar Rally.

2025 Dakar Rally fast facts

• Starting tomorrow, January 3 in Bisha, Saudi Arabia a total of 580 riders, drivers and co-pilots, representing 52 nationalities will begin the annual epic off-road journey with a 26-kilometre prologue.
• 134 of the competitors are in the bikes category (21 Rally GP, 113 Rally 2, including 25 Original by Motul), as well as 64 cars in the Ultimate class, 2 in the Stock class, 52 in the Challenger class, 39 in the SSV category and 44 trucks.
• Riders will tackle a planned 7706-kilometre route, including 5146 km of special tests.
• Toby Price and Sam Sunderland have moved on to fresh pastures, leaving just two former Dakar champions in the hunt – Kevin Benavides and Ricky Brabec.
• Riders who win the Dakar while sporting race number one are few and far between. The last reigning champion to mount a successful title defence in the motorbike category was Marc Coma in 2015.
• A decade on, much to the dismay of some including Ricky Brabec, the W2RC champion Ross Branch will be racing as número uno following his W2RC victory and despite finishing second in 2023.
• Branch heads the list of riders aiming for the podium and to better K Ben and Ricky B in 17 day’s time: Adrien Van Beveren, Pablo Quintanilla, Luciano Benavides, Daniel Sanders, Nacho Cornejo, Skyler Howes, Mason Klein, Lorenzo Santolino and Tosha Schareina all chase their maiden Dakar victory.
• Successive years of team domination see Honda start he Dakar as collective favourites ahead of emerging Hero Motorsports team. A re-focused KTM crew now without the white and red bikes alongside, are headed by the two-time winner Kevin Benavides with his brother Luciano as back-up. The recent Rallye du Maroc victor, Daniel Sanders, promises much.
• 19-year-old Spaniard Edgar Canet is now also an official KTM teamster and becomes the youngest factory rider in the history.
• Spaniard Canet faces stiff competition in the hotly contested Rally 2 class from Indian Harith Noah, now a Sherco factory rider, who will attempt to defend his crown against Romain Dumontier and Michael Docherty. Bradley Cox meanwhile, a serial contender in Rally 2 in recent years, moves up to the GP class this year.
• Tobias Ebster has stepped out of the Original by Motul ranks to gun for a strong result in Rally 2 and look out for Konrad Dąbrowski, this class will be hotly contested and reach well into the GP class riders for overall classification.
• Original by Motul has a special flavour each year with the DIY riders who deliberately forgo a service crew and take full responsibility for maintaining and repairing their machines each day.
• Adding hardship to hardship for these 25 competitors is the fact they pack and sleep in sleeping bags and tents, plus the organisers have tightened the rules this year to limit assistance from competitors outside the Originals class -when they say they are alone they mean it.
• For the 2025 edition, the Originals promises a battle between Benjamin Melot, Javi Vega and Emanuel Gyenes back in contention.
• Sadly the female category is lacking competitors this year with just one entry, the multi-talented Sandra Gomez riding for the Fantic Factory Rally Team.

Official Start List:

Photo Credit: A.S.O. | Julien Delfosse | F. Gooden | J. Lindini | A. Vincent