Real Dakar winner

The official Dakar Rally doesn't go to Dakar. But the 3750-mile Africa Eco Rally does – and this lightly-modded Aprilia Tuareg 660 won it

Imagine a rally that actually finished in Dakar and could be won by a modified road bike. Sound good? Well, such a race exists, and this year an Aprilia Tuareg 660 took victory, beating swarms of Yamaha Tenere 700s and full-on KTM 450 Rally bikes in the process. Starting in Monaco and running for 3750 miles through Morocco, Mauritania and Senegal, the Africa Eco Race channels the spirit of the old Paris-Dakar by following similar routes and encouraging modified road bikes as well as the usual 450CC single-cylinder rally machines that dominate the official Dakar (which is now held in Saudi Arabia). Incidentally, the ‘Eco’ element of the Africa Eco seems tenuous – from what we can see, some of the support vehicles have got solar panels and that's it. Favourites for…

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BIKE United Kingdom (Digital) - 1 Issue, April 2024

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