Identical to final 12 months, Matthieu Jauffraud didn’t obtain the information he hoped from the Amaury Sport Organisation once they knowledgeable him his 2025 Dakar Rally utility has been turned down. Naturally, this implies his consideration will now be on the 2026 race.
Not like his 2024 rejection which was resulting from inadequate desert rally expertise, this occasion was primarily resulting from unhealthy circumstance. Whereas competing within the 2023 Rallye du Maroc to construct up his portfolio, Jauffraud launched off a dune too far ninety-six kilometres into Stage #2 and the touchdown precipitated him to rupture his Achilles and fracture a tibia.
The damage prevented him from using for eight months and threw a wrench into his 2024 plans. He had hoped to run the Abu Dhabi Desert Problem in February, which together with the Rallye du Maroc is a part of the World Rally-Raid Championship and the Highway to Dakar; the latter awards free Dakar Rally registration to the very best rider who has by no means raced it earlier than. As an alternative, he solely received again on his bike in Could and his gamble to enroll in Dakar shortly after failed.
With the 2025 Dakar out of attain, he’ll restart his programme by coming into the 2024 Rallye du Maroc on 6–11 October in addition to the 2025 Abu Dhabi Desert Problem on 21–27 February. Though rejected, he theoretically can nonetheless qualify for the 2025 Dakar Rally if he wins the Highway to Dakar in Morocco or no less than performs effectively sufficient to alter the ASO’s minds.
“Attributable to my extreme damage on the 2023 Rallye due Maroc, and regardless of working tirelessly for eight months to get again on the bike, my utility to take part within the 2025 Dakar Rally was not accepted,” wrote Jauffraud on Saturday. “Thus, I’m revising my schedule to incorporate the 2024 Rally du Maroc in October and the 2025 Abu Dhabi Desert Problem in February to resubmit my utility subsequent 12 months. I should wait till 2026 to start out this legendary race, the Dakar Rally.”
A physiotherapist who does motocross and sand racing, Jauffraud started competing in rallies in 2023. He completed forty-eighth total and twenty-first within the M3 class in his maiden rally at that 12 months’s Hellas Rally Raid in Greece.
