Hero MotoSports at Dakar

Here in brief is how the three-rider Hero MotoSports Team Rally fared in the Dakar Rally 2021

All the updates from the gruelling 2021 edition

THE HERO MOTOSPORTS TEAM RALLY TOOK on the latest edition of the Dakar rally with a three-rider squad. It was a roller-coaster of emotions for the team as two of them completed the rally among the top 20, while the ace Indian, C S Santosh, suffered a crash. Just after winning the Baja portalegre, hero MotoSports team rally’s spirits were high going into the 2021 Dakar rally. the three-rider squad included Sebastian Buhler, who is the 2020 FIM Cross-Country Baja World Cup winner, Joaquim rodriguez, who is the winner of the 2019 pan africa rally, and C S Santosh, the very first Indian to have completed the Dakar rally in 2015. In this edition of the rally, Buhler made an appearance for the second time in hero colours, while it was the fifth appearance for both Jrod and Santosh.

The riders took on the Dakar challenge astride a new hero 450 rally bike that featured a new 450-cc engine and an evolved chassis. the manufacturer says that the engine was developed especially for rally sport and offers an improved top speed and acceleration. the team also sported a new livery this year that featured a futuristic “Barcode” inspired design aesthetic, which, they say, showcases the technical edge of their rally team. this was the 43rd edition of the Dakar rally and it ventured across the entirety of Saudi arabia. Culminating in the city of Jeddah, the rally kicked off on 3 January and travelled through various cities before returning to the same city on 15 January. Competitors travelled for a total of 7,646 kilometres, of which about 4,767 km were competitive. the rally was divided into 12 stages and had an all-new route with more slush, sand, dunes, and mountains to traverse than before.