Welcome to Carlyledesertracing.com.   Race no 141

This site was set up for those following the attempt by Paul Carlyle to finish the 2010 Dakar Rally in Argentina and Chile on a KTM motorcycle. After 16 days of racing, Paul successfully completed the Rally in 72nd place.

I am working on updating this site to cover the Tuareg Rallye in 2011 and some future projects. Please bear with me as I tidy up the site.

Paul is a truly amateur rider (sometimes very amateur indeed), so the Dakar can truly be attempted by those who are neither superhuman professional racers nor production company backed celebrities.

We will try to keep the site as up to date as possible, have a look around, post comments and generally be part of Paul's attempt on the toughest motor race in the world.

Check Latest News for some pics and news - also Blog and Twitter . Stage 14 - final stage- 707 km with a 206 km special. Sandy tracks - and fast. Finished the Rally. Only the 2nd ever Scot to do so on a bike. 73rd on the stage - final placing 71st. Top Brit home.

Rally won by Cyril Despres on a KTM with Pal Anders Ullavaseter in 2nd.

  And this is what it was all for - DAKAR Finishers Medal    

Background

10 years ago Paul couldn't ride a motorcycle. Working as an office bound lawyer in Glasgow he decided to pass his motorcycle test and rode around the west coast of Scotland for a couple of years on a sports bike on sunny Sunday afternoons like most bikers. In 2003, however, he got in touch with Mungo Williams who persuaded him to go to Morocco on an offroad desert tour for 5 days on Honda dirt bikes. On that trip he met Cyril Despres, heard lots of Dakar stories and caught the Dakar bug - "one day I'm going to try to do that...".

6 years of riding enduros in the UK and entering as many desert races as he could afford ultimately led to an entry in the Dakar for 2010.

The Rally

Traditionally the Paris/Dakar Rallye, the Rally has not started in Paris for some years. Until 2008, however, the Rally did finish in Senegal at Dakar and the famous Lac Rose. Following terrorist threats in 2008 - primarily in Mauritania - the race was cancelled.

The Dakar organisers did an amazing job and relocated entirely new routes to South America in 2009 and 2010 sees these routes extended and refined.

Starting in Buenos Aires on the first of January the route heads north over the mountains to the Atacama desert in Chile then south to Santiago, Mendoza and back to BA. Over 9000 competitive kilometres.