The 44th edition of the Dakar Rally opens today, with a first test starting from Hail, Saudi Arabia. To find their way around the desert, runners use essential “roadbooks“… not cards, but diagrams and GPS coordinates who show them kilometer by kilometer the obstacles to avoid in this changing landscape.
A mobile printing press …
These roadbooks are printed at the last moment on site by Cédric Mondon, manager of the digital printing press. Procontact in Beaumont-en-Véron. While the competitors compete against each other on a test, he is already printing the booklets for the next day, in his traveling truck. “We are installed in the arrival cities. We are on duty in the morning around 6:30 am, when the truck has made the connection, at night.”
When the drivers parked the truck for us, we started printing, shaping, until around 10 p.m.
– Juliette Geay
… Fitted out in 60 cubic meters!
To be able to carry out this mission, Cédric and his three collaborators fitted out a 19-tonne vehicle. A real mobile printing press, which crisscrosses the desert, for the third year already. “Eight printers, all the material, a binding machine, a performer, a laminator, 3 tons of paper, all in 24 square meters “, he details.
We live together in 24 square meters for 15 days!
A small living space, largely offset by the landscape, phenomenal. “We are privileged, the truck is often in rather giant panoramas. Each outing is a breath of fresh air.“
The desert, for the light, is a permanent spectacle.
Saving time for the co-pilots
This whole adventure was born of a meeting between Cédric Mondon and David Castera, the organizer of the Dakar Rally, and a common observation. “We started from the premise that in rally-raid the routes were [imprimés] several weeks in advance. But the desert is a very moving environment, which moves a lot. We told ourselves that if we printed the roadbooks at the last moment, with the corrections, it would save time for the co-drivers.
This allows us to deliver the most accurate product possible.
They therefore imagined an on-site printing press, first tested on the Rallye du Maroc. “We went completely into the unknown with a small truck, it worked really well! Three months later we were in Dakar“.
Since 2019, the co-pilots have therefore received a finished product the day before the event, and no longer have to do with the package of loose sheets which previously contained the last course corrections.
The combination of a profession and a passion
The organizer of the Dakar did not choose Cédric by chance. This Chinon, car enthusiast since childhood, also shines on the circuits as a co-driver. French first division rally champion in 2018, second division champion in 2015, he also has around thirty victories in rallies to his credit. “I discovered this at the age of 7 completely by chance. It totally transported me and I said straight away that I wanted to make it and live in it. “
“Working for international events like the Dakar is fabulous, it’s a real personal satisfaction.
During his 15 days of fairyland each year in January, he does not forget his clients in Indre-et-Loire, sometimes “patients for orders“, Who “understand his passion“and without whom, he said, he would never have been able to live this adventure.