Welcome to
Carlyledesertracing.com.
Paul Carlyle set up
Carlyledesertracing.com to allow his attempt on the Dakar 2010 to be
followed by other amateur riders, supporters and anyone interested in
desert racing. On his first attempt, Paul finished the Dakar in 72nd
place as the second Scot ever to finish and (due to bad luck suffered
by others) as first British rider in the Dakar 2010.
While Paul is not yet finished with
the Dakar and desert rallies in general, he is currently working on
developing a programme to allow other Scottish riders (and riders from
anywhere) to participate in desert races. We have great riders in
Scotland but we are a long way from the desert. Carlyle Desert Racing
aims to make use of the knowledge hard won by Paul to help reduce that
distance.
The aim is to have a Scottish rider
finish in the top 20 in the Dakar, the toughest race in the world.
Paul is a truly amateur rider
(sometimes very amateur indeed), the Dakar can truly be attempted by
those who are neither superhuman professional racers nor production
company backed celebrities.
We will be developing the site on an ongoing basis to provide
information and opportunities. However, anyone truly interested in
what's going on and where to start should contact Paul on
info@carlyledesertracing.com
Ongoing updates are available on
Paul's twitter feed as well. Click below.
TThe Dakar finisher's 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. 2010 and 2011 saw these routes
extended and
refined. 2012 takes the Rally from Mar del Plata to the South of Buenos
Aires through Argentina and Chile to finish in Lima, Peru.
Starting on the first of January the route heads north
over the mountains to the Atacama desert in Chile then north to Peru.
Over 9000 competitive kilometres.