A completely new route!

It has been 3 years since the MDC raced through Morocco. A lot can change in such a long period, even in a desolate environment like the desert. That's why we choose to drastically change course with a completely new route! A few days ago, Sports Director Jean-Claude Kaket left Agadir, Morocco with his team to validate those new tracks and write the new roadbooks.

What does that new route look like?

As usual, we will start on April 21 and 22 with the administrative and technical scrutineering in Agadir, the pleasant seaside city on the Atlantic Ocean that has undergone a complete transformation in the last 2 years.

• Stage 1, on April 23, is a prologue of about 50 km, near Agadir. This way you can enjoy the comfort of a hotel for an extra night.
• Stage 2, on April 24, starts with a one-off liaison of about 250km to the legendary Plage Blanche followed by a 360km long special to the bivouac in Assa.
• Stage 3, on April 25: Assa – Foum Zguid: 403 fast km through the military zone
• Stage 4, on April 26: Foum Zguid – Foum Zguid: 275 km / dunes of Erg Chegaga
• Stage 5, on April 27: Foum Zguid – Mhamid: 338 km / Erg Chegaga
• Stage 6, on April 28: Mhamid – Mhamid: 341 km / Oueds & Erg Chegaga
• Stage 7, on April 29: Mhamid – Merzouga: 324 km / Mountains, fast tracks, dunes
• Stage 8, on April 30: Merzouga – Merzouga: 205 km / Dunes and WRC tracks

3 loops for extra comfort

We stay 1 night in the bivouac of Assa but in the bivouacs of Foum Zguid, Mhamid and Merzouga we stay 2 nights. Both for the assistance teams and for the organization, it requires an enormous logistical effort to break down a bivouac every day and rebuild it at the next location. By decreasing the number of different bivouacs from 6 to 4, in analogy to the Tunisia Desert Challenge, we can give both parties a little more breathing space so that the mechanics also occasionally have the opportunity to catch up on sleep or enjoy a beer.

We are also abandoning the coast-to-coast concept for the first time. The rally no longer ends in Saidia, but in Merzouga. This for several reasons:

1. No more bivouac on the Plateau de Rekkam, with a risk of temperatures around freezing point, but an unprecedented finish party, with pleasantly warm temperatures, in the middle of the dunes of Merzouga.
2. No more incidents in Saidia as we have known them in 2019

The details of the different stages will be announced soon.