Rally in Doubt

Our chances of making the starting line took a knock today, with the news that the Paris Dakar Rally which follows a shorter (if more arduous) route than us has been cancelled due to the shooting of five French tourists last week. The Organisers of the Paris - Dakar rally the A.S.O said that they have received specific threats against the rally and that coupled with advice from the French ministry of foreign affairs not to travel to Mauritania has made the rally untenable.

What does this mean for us? Well obviously it's not great but we have not received any specific threats so far and the foreign office has not changed the risk level for travel to Mauritania. Having spoken to a few of the other competitors, tensions are high and there is already talk of people dropping out. Our view is that we are going to wait and see what happens over the next few days and unless there is a specific risk or the rally is cancelled we will go.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/world_rally/7171426.stm

http://www.dakar.com/indexus.html