The Repsol rider prepares his participation in the Dakar by taking part in the Morocco Rally, which starts today and will finish next Saturday, October 20th.
With the Cross-Country Rallies World Championship title already in his pocket, Marc Coma took this morning the start of the Morocco Rally. Six days of competition await him, during which he will cross more than 2000 kilometres on African soil —1500 of them timed— which will be a perfect testing bench both for his KTM 450 Rally and for Coma, before facing the Dakar Challenge.
As the entry list show, despite not being part of the World Championship the Moroccan round is the ideal test before undertaking the South American adventure. Cyril Despres, Helder Rodrigues, Jordi Viladoms, Paulo Gonçalves, Jakub Przygonski, Chaleco López and Joan Barreda, among others, will compete with Marc Coma in a demanding rally that will assess the participants’ level of riding, navigation and fitness.
Marc Coma
“After becoming World Champions last June, we were able to rest and enjoy the title we achieved. By the end of July we resume our preparations and started with the physical training, slowly including the bike in the training program. The moment of truth is arriving and the Morocco Rally will be a perfect training. We will use it to test all the material we will use at the Dakar, as well as our level of preparation. The desert where the Morocco Rally takes place and the one at the Dakar are similar. There are differences, but we will find very tough conditions, as it is a desert with extreme temperatures, dunes, sand and many rocks. In short, it is the closer terrain we have that is most similar to what we will find at the Dakar”.
