Barcelona will host a presentation of the Spanish Dakar Rally teams

Barcelona will host the next one December 1st The presentation of Spanish groups who will compete in 46th edition of the Dakar Rally, which will take place from January 5 to 19, 2024 in Saudi Arabia. The event, which will be held at 6 pm in the Plaza Rosa dels Vents in Port Vell, is open to the public and will serve as a farewell to the participants in this legendary test before they ride with the other Saudi teams. Arabia.

The entourage of the competition, in fact, It will be placed in the Fòrum park from November 30 to December 2, a space chosen by the race organization to carry out technical and administrative verification of more than 800 vehicles, including vehicles, assistance, press and organization. Although access to this area will remain closed on the first day, on December 1 and 2 from 11 am to 5 pm, under the “Barcelona lives the Dakar” initiative, citizens will be able to reflect on the activities of the organization in this space and see How the teams that will participate in the Dakar pass the verifications.

The days of technical verification and the event on December 1 are an opportunity for citizens who see for yourself the cars that will compete in the Dakar before boarding, an operation that will be carried out at the Port of Barcelona at the beginning of December and will involve the transport of all vehicles on two ships to Saudi Arabia. The choice of the Catalan capital for transport logistics in Saudi Arabia is one of the great novelties of this year’s edition, as it is usually located in the Port of Marseille where this operation is centralized.

The councilor of Esports, David Escude, emphasized that with this initiative “we want citizens to have the possibility to see the rally cars from the front line and to participate in this great international sporting event. It should be a citizen festival where everyone wants to go to the Fòrum park and Port Vell and see how the drivers prepare for this big challenge, like the Dakar.

The president of the Port of Barcelona, Lluís Salvadó, highlighted the role of the Port of Barcelona, ​​​​​​​​its port community, and its infrastructure, together with the attractiveness of the city of Barcelona,​​​​to attract sporting events with an international that effect. “The facilities and operators of the Port de Barcelona proved to be the best option for the organizers of the Dakar when it comes to bringing all the competitors to Saudi Arabia, just as the spaces in Port Vell convinced the organizers of the Copa América to celebrate it. in Barcelona next year.”

From Dakar, the race director, David Castera, highlighted the commitment and excellent results of the Spanish pilots in the test, pointing out that “they will once again form the second largest nationality in terms of the countries from which the competitors come in this Dakar 2024: a a total of 119 pilots and co-pilots, likely to be present at all classification levels for several weeks, with great champions and fans passionate about the desert.” “The possibility of organizing the loading of vehicles in the port of Barcelona is a way to have a gesture. with the city that received us in 2005 for the departure of an edition going to Senegal. The past has often that speaks to the present and the future,” Castera added.

Having the Dakar in Barcelona represents a new milestone in a relationship that began in 1989, when the Catalan capital was the end of the first stage of the rally that started in Paris. The old beach of the Free Trade Zone hosts the show-off stage before the cars board for Tunisia, on their way to Dakar, the capital of Senegal. In 2005, Barcelona rewrote its name in the history of the event, hosting the start and being the start and finish of the first stage running entirely on Catalan territory. On that occasion, instead of embarking in Barcelona, ​​​​​​the expedition continued overland with a second stage ending in Granada.