The Route des Legendes was organised starting from Versailles to Sète, to follow in the footsteps of the pioneers of the Dakar. For the delight of the participants and the public, the 2024 edition followed a legendary road: The mythical RN20! The event ended with a sunny arrival in Sète port city in the southeast of France.
For all those who did follow in the footsteps of the Dakar pioneers, the starts was around 8 a.m. in front of the Palace of Versailles. Many of the cars and motorcycles from the Paris-Dakar did join the course of 950 kms, with large cities stages and two off-road tracks. The road went from Orléans (CP and stage TT), Châteauroux (lunch), Compreignac (CP and stage TT) Brive la Gaillarde (Stage 1st day), Montauban (lunch), Toulouse (CP), Carcassonne (CP) and finally the arrival in Sète.
The event was in memory of the french Dakar heroes from 1978 like Auriol, Neveu, Vassard, Comte, Martine de Cortanze, Martine Rénier, Rigoni, Rahier, Rigal... or Fenouil. Fenouil is one of the legends of Paris-Algiers-Dakar, Abidjan-Nice and the Rally of Pharaohs. Pascal was having great success by building a replica of Fenouils Kawasaki from the early days. Cony earned even more respect by riding that monster all the way down to Sete.
Lots of the old, known and recognized brands that sponsored the Dakar in the first days were back to life: Oasis, VSD, Texaco, Rothmans, Elf, Facom, RTL, Africatours, Uniroyal, Total, Michelin, Camel, Yamato, le Point, Paris Match, Europe 1, New Man, Pastis 51, Pionneer, Pacific, Olympia, Le point, Nikon, Gauloise, Gitanes, Lucky... All those had associated their image with the greatest and hardest rally in the world. Mikel was looking forward to the 1979 Moto-Guzzi, which make the Dakar. That bike was supposed to be there, but unfortunately it wasn’t.
Homologated for the Route des Legends were cars and motorcycles, having participated in the Paris-Dakar between 1975 and 1997. This included real Dakar bikes, but as well all road bikes and authentic replicas of that time. Some newer bikes where accepted as supporter bikes, but most of the participating vehicles were the real deal.
The start was Saturday, September 28, 2024, in the early morning at dawn for the first stage, leading the caravan to Brive-la-Gaillarde, on the route of the first ParisDakar, this N20, successively crossing Orleans, Chateauroux and Limoges before reaching Brive. On Sunday was the second stage, direction Cahors, Montauban and Toulouse, before the arrival in the port of Sete. From here, at the time of the first Paris-Dakar, the Ferry sailed for the crossing of the mediterranean sea in the direction of Algiers.
It was the revival of the real adventure and the unique chance to admire some motorcycles and cars of the first Paris-Dakar days.
Despite some minor issues the entire AMAL team made it to the finish line: The legendary Fenouil bike ridden by Cony did run two times out of fuel and lost the entire carburettor battery during day one. Pascal’s Morini ridden by Thierry did leak a bunch of oil on day two. Alex’s Honda started already with a non working regulator. As he didn’t want to listen to George and still used the electro starter, he needed a push on the 2nd morning the start the Honda XL. Mikel’s Elefant lost a brake pad from the back brake. It all could be somehow repaired on the road. The Elefant made it with no issues to the finish line but the electro starter burned on the very next morning.
Conclusion: All AMAL Members made it to the finish line but only King George’s XT had no issues at all during the whole trip. Overall it was a gorgeous event and we will be back for sure… but that time with an Elefant 350 from 1986.
There were rumours about a follow-up event one day with a stage in North-Africa. That would be of course amazing!
