Preparations for the Maroc Challenge Spring Edition 2020 are already underway, an exciting new adventure that will start April 3rd and run till the 11th putting the teams’ resolve fully to the test with an eighty percent new itinerary. Recconaisances will start in February, adding the finishing touches to the route.
The official departure will be in Saïdia, already in Morocco, on the Mediterranean shores and a hundred kilometers from Nador, the itinerary will be linear and the event will end in Merzouga, at the base of the imposing Erg Chebbi. In the sixth and final stage, participants will once again have to follow a series of waypoints provided by the organization.
The desert plains and sands will be the predominant feature of this Spring edition. We will start out from Saïdia, where verifications will take place on Saturday, and we will pass through such charismatic towns as Tendrara (where a Dakar style camp will be set up), Erfoud, Foum Zguid, Zagora and Merzouga. The same philosophy that has been developed in recent editions will be maintained, with routes adapted to the wide variety of vehicles, be they 4×2 or 4×4 traction, and also with different levels of difficulty.
The first stage, departing from Saïdia and ending in Tendrara, will start out by road until Ain Benimathar, where we will follow some tracks new to the Maroc. The second stage, which will start out from the camp and end in Erfoud, includes 70% new routes, passing through Beni Tajjite and Boudnib, where we will take the legendary Citroën track. The third stage, between Erfoud and Zagora, with a 60% modified route was done in the opposite direction in the Winter edition and will cross Erg Chebbi from north to south. We will also have to contend with the technically challenging Ouzina dunes and the lost city.
The fourth stage will be a loop departing from and arriving in Zagora, with very different routes for cars and off-road vehicles, and will take the Foum Zguid alternative, the famous Iriki, with its rivers of sand and the dunes of erg Chegaga and M’hamid. In the fifth stage we will head north, with an almost totally new itinerary for the Maroc, passing through Fezzou and arriving in Erfoud via the Monuments area. The sixth and final stage will consist of waypoints.