Not only was it the tenth consecutive win for the Austrian sports motorcycle specialists but also a sensational ride by the company's two leading factory riders who finished 1-2 in a two-way battle that kept the fans on their toes throughout the entire rally.
The victory for Spaniard Marc Coma of the MRW KTM team was his third career Dakar title. It was a measured, well-earned ride but by Marc's own admission was tough all the way because he and fellow KTM factory rider Cyril Despres (Red Bull KTM) never gave each other any ground until they got to the finish.
There has rarely been a rally so competitively fought and one where the two KTM riders, competing on the newly developed KTM Rally bike were so equal in skill, tactics and determination. Despres and Coma were also head and shoulders above the competition and long before the end of the journey it was clear that this was to be a two-man race between equally skilled riders, who now each have three of the coveted Dakar trophies. When the unfortunate 10 minute penalty incurred by Cyril in the early stages of the rally is taken into consideration then both he and Marc were so closely matched throughout the rally that they frequently came in minutes, sometimes even seconds apart. The 33rd edition of this great event was also a fitting tribute to the Austrian brand because seven of the top 10 riders were on KTMs.
The 2011 Dakar was nothing short of a triumph for KTM and a very strong response to the surprise rule change introduced without warning by the Dakar organizers in the middle of 2009, which restricted professional riders from competing on bikes exceeding 450 ccm.
This was widely seen as an attempt to break the KTM stranglehold on the title and as a result, Despres and Coma competed in the 2010 on the KTM 690 rally bike fitted with restrictors to reduce the performance down to the equivalent of a 450 ccm machine. It didn't make any difference to the outcome and Cyril Despres took his third title. KTM's response to the rule change was to have their R&D department go into top gear to design a Dakar competitive 450 ccm rally bike. The new KTM 450 Rally Replica was therefore the result of intense work by the KTM R&D department, with valuable input by both Coma and Despres, including hundreds of hours of testing. The bike made its first appearance in the autumn of 2010 where Despres rode it to victory in the desert sands of the Rally of Morocco.
