Sonora RtD winner Francisco Alvarez set for Dakar Rally debut in 2025

Francisco Álvarez has pencilled in his Dakar Rally début for 2025, finally making use of the free registration he earned for winning the Road to Dakar at the 2023 Sonora Rally in Mexico.

Alvarez beat sixteen other riders at Sonora last year for the bike Road to Dakar ticket, which waived him of application fees for either the 2024 or 2025 Dakar Rally. He elected to skip the 2024 edition, explaining in January that it “gives me one year to prepare better and acquire the resources.

“Running the Dakar is not easy at all. It is something very difficult in many aspects in terms of preparation, physically too, learning to navigate, and apart from that, getting the resources in a country like Colombia where we have a small motorcycle culture.

“We have all of 2024 to do these and be able to take a competitive project to the Dakar in 2025 and achieve something similar to what we did in Sonora.”

Álvarez primarily competes in enduro, winning the Latin American championship in 2020 followed by the Colombian national title two years later in 2022. His achievements have allowed him to represent Colombia at the FIM International Six Days of Enduro, earning two silver medals and a bronze. He is also a multi-time national champion in motocross.

Sonora was part of the World Rally-Raid Championship like the Dakar in 2023. Although no longer on the schedule, it is still a Road to Dakar event for 2024 and awards the same number of qualifying points as other W2RC events.

The 2025 Dakar Rally is scheduled for 3–17 January.