Joan Barreda Bort spoke exclusively with FOX Sports about his candidate label: "We have to make the most of the experience of these years of competition with Marc (Coma) and with Cyril (Despres) and see if we can be fighting for the Dakar."

Regarding the last-minute route change, he said: "I would have liked it as planned before, there would have been more variety. We know them quite well, the Dakar has to find us new territories."