To complete the first week of the race, a new stage format has been invented over two days, plunging the riders and drivers into a unique experience in the heart of the Empty Quarter. Setting off from Shubaytah, separate specials have been prepared for the bikes/quads and cars/trucks: 620 km to be covered over two days for the former and 570 km for the others.
As regards the FIM competitors, a specific rule has been drawn up for the Rally GP riders, who will start out in reverse order of the previous day’s ranking. In this vast desert of dunes, seven very basic bivouacs spread over six geographical points will be set up to welcome the riders and drivers. They will be obliged to stop as soon as they reach one of them once the cut-off time of 16.00 has passed.
On site, they will be given an allowance of 6 litres of water, a tent, a floor mat, a sleeping bag and a survival ration. Furthermore, these “rest zones” are totally isolated in terms of connections and telephone networks: the leading riders and drivers will have few clues as to the performances of their rivals!
The following day at dawn, the competitors will start at one-minute intervals in the order they arrived at the bivouac. A further subtlety is that the starting points are shared by all the categories, so the bikes and cars will start the special alternately, at 30second intervals.
For the leading competitors, they may only have around one hundred kilometres to complete, on which the bonuses for bikers opening the way will be increased to 1.5 seconds per kilometre, in order to decrease the advantage that a rider may have been tempted to take the day before by slowing before entering the rest zone in order to start the next day in second place rather than out in front, for example.
On the return to Shubaytah, the riders and driver will finally be able to await the finishes of their rivals to discover whether their performance has been good or bad in terms of the general rankings. A plane will then take them to Riyadh, where they will at last be able to rest!