Happy New Year, everyone! The wheel of time rotates another 360 degrees and here we are again contemplating grizzled superhunks Stephane Peterhansel, Nasser Al-Attiyah, Gini de Villiers, Nani Roma and more driving across endless sand for two weeks for reasons that are unclear. Russian and Dutch lorry crews will halt what I assume is a busy haulage schedule and instead race their multi-tonne monstrosities along a similar route. Bikers too, but minus a roof. Carlton Kirby narrates the off-camera and off-civilization spectacle from what I imagine is a windowless and unheated studio from an outer arrondisement of Paris. Fernando Alonso descends from the fortress of solitude to drive a Toyota with an uncertain outcome. He'll have five-time bike winner Marc Coma sitting next to him so at least map-reading is in good hands.
Last year saw Toyota triumph with Nasser Al-Attiyah at the wheel, adding to his wins in 2011 and 2015. The next one is therefore due in 2023 so we can safely assume he's out of contention this year. Also out of contention this time are third-placed Sebastien Loeb and the other French former biker Cyril Despres, who are both staying at home this year (or could simply have retired). The process of elimination tells me that this leaves Nani Roma and Mr Dakar Stephane Peterhansel as favourites, with a colourful cast of dark horses (mixed metaphor?) including Czech rallyist Martin Prokop, home worker Yazeed Alrajhi and the aforementioned Fernando also within reach. In the bikes class, KTM swept the first three places with an injured but tough-as-nails Toby Price beating teammates Matthias Walkner and Sam Sunderland, with the thin margin of 13 minutes (that's a small navigation misadventure) separating them. The Russians at Kamaz smashed the truck class, with only Gerard De Rooy's Iveco team coming anywhere close. The team will be competing in Saudi Arabia but Gerard won't as he's sidelined with injury. So who's going to stop the Kamazes? Who knows. Perhaps no one!
Biggest news from a geopolitical standpoint is that the rally leaves its rather unloved temporary home in Argentina/Chile/etc for the altogether sandier geography of Saudi Arabia. With 5000km of special stages it's a challenging and considerably longer route than before. They'll start at the ancient port of Jeddah, making their way north along the coast to Neom, which Wikipedia describes as a "planned cross-border city" and tactfully avoids the use of the future tense, as "planned" in this case may mean "not built yet", instead of "lots of roundabouts and convenient for the motorway". But we'll find out! That's the beauty of rallying. From there they follow the east-to-west caravan route through Al-Ula and Ha'il, before swinging down to Saudi capital Riyadh. They'll then loop around the south of the country, heading first to the Dawasir valley then the oil fields in the southeast before the ceremonial finish in another future tense city, the "entertainment megaproject" (Wikipedia again) Al-Qiddiya. Short of a visit to Mecca or the consulate in Istanbul I think that's the full Saudi Arabia experience.
The rally starts on Sunday, 5 January! All going well it'll end 12 days later on Friday 17th. Exact dates for stages on the map above.
All or some of my information may be out of date. I'm pretty sure it's in Saudi Arabia though. Enjoy! Post below!
Was live for free on Eurosport I remember... Not so much now since it's original African format. But hey ho rallying no longer what it used to be.
) so lets hope it’s not terminal and they get back underway. 
