The Yamaha Ténéré 700 World Rally GYTR enjoyed a record-breaking return to its spiritual African home during the 2024 Africa Eco Race, with Alessandro Botturi and Pol Tarrés securing a double podium for the Ténéré Yamaha Rally Team. Yet, there was even more success for the twin-cylinder adventure bike born in the Sahara Desert, with Nicholas Charlier finishing ninth overall on the standard production version of the machine with the three-stage GYTR kits fitted.
The 2024 Africa Eco Race (AER) will go down on record as one of the most hotly contested ever. A three-way battle at the front saw Botturi and Tarrés fight for the overall victory right to the final stage, as the 700M class bikes dominated the rest of the field. Botturi secured a spectacular second and just missed out on the win by a margin of six minutes and 38 seconds after almost 40 hours of racing.
While the AER has proved a happy hunting ground for experienced Italian Botturi in the past, with the 48-year-old winning it twice previously in 2019 and 2020 on a Yamaha YZ450F, his teammate Tarrés only made his debut in the 2022 edition after switching from racing hard enduro to rally raid that year.
Despite being only the second rally of his career, Tarrés created history by becoming the first person to complete the entire race on a twin-cylinder adventure bike. Incredibly, just 14 months later, he would return to Africa to finish third overall and complete a double podium for the team.
Underscoring the strength of Ténéré 700 World Rally, Tarrés and his teammate Botturi won seven of the 12 stages between them and enjoyed an over four-hour advantage over the chasing pack of 450cc single-cylinder bikes in the final general classification, showcasing just how far the project has progressed.
Billed as one of the toughest rallies in the world, the AER starts in Monaco and retraces the 1970s routes of the original Paris-Dakar. It traverses North-West Africa and covers more than 6,500km over some of the most demanding terrain on the planet through Morocco, Western Sahara, and Mauritania before finishing alongside the legendary Lac Rose in Dakar, Senegal.
To take on such an epic race, you need a bike that is up to the task and ready to conquer the infamous dunes of the Sahara. Inspired by Cyril Neveu’s victory at the Dakar in 1979 onboard an XT500, the idea for the original Ténéré (which means desert in the Tuareg language) was conceived before it was introduced to the world in 1983.
It became one of the most influential motorcycles of its era, allowing people to explore exotic, faraway destinations and discover new horizons while inspiring many riders to race in some of the world’s most challenging rallies.
Stirring memories of the epic battles and exhilarating adventure of the original Paris-Dakar era, it is fitting that Botturi and Tarrés were competing on the Ténéré 700 World Rally, the latest special edition of the iconic machine that forged its reputation in the original races across Africa, which features a colourway inspired by “Mr Dakar” himself, Stephane Peterhansel, who won the historic rally six times for Yamaha in the 1990s.
Racing in some of the harshest conditions known to man allows the engineers and riders to provide essential feedback to develop the bikes that Tarrés and Botturi ride. That technology, via three GYTR kits, is now available to buy for the Ténéré World Raid and World Rally bikes.
These kits, Performance, Handling, and Rally, allow you to upgrade the standard version of these machines to an almost identical specification as the development bikes Botturi and Tarrés ride, keeping the spirit of adventure that encapsulated the original Ténéré alive and well and delivering elite-level performance capability to riders around the world.
Highlighting how competitive the three kits make the standard bike was Nicholas Charlier's outstanding performance. The Frenchman was entering his first desert rally via the Ténéré Spirit Experience (TSE), which is designed to let you experience some of the thrills and excitement of racing alongside the official team. The majority of TSE customers take part in the Raid category, where you ride a route parallel to the main stages without the pressure of racing against the clock, to give them a taste of what competing in a rally is like.
Charlier, however, decided to enter the full race alongside Botturi and Tarrés, competing on a standard Ténéré 700 World Rally, upgraded with the three GYTR performance kits. Each of the three kits, which can be fitted in stages or all at once at your local Yamaha dealer, with a selection of the parts also available to buy individually, takes your machine to the next level and, when combined, creates the ultimate Ténéré.
The Performance kit adds a lightweight race titanium exhaust system from Akrapovič, a bespoke air filter kit, an aluminium clutch cover, and the GYTR ECU to improve torque and power. Combined, these improvements increase the bike's power output by nine bhp.
Taking things a step further, the Handling kit focuses on getting the chassis of the Ténéré rally-ready, with new race-specification wheels, upgraded suspension, enhanced front and rear braking systems, a GYTR triple clamp assembly, steering dampener, lightweight chain and sprocket, plus the GYTR Handling ECU upgrade that allows for deletion of the ABS and immobiliser, as well as a bigger radiator and separate oil cooler.
To make the bike genuinely race-ready, the Rally kit features larger capacity split front fuel tanks plus auxiliary tanks for the rear that increase the overall capacity to 37.6 litres, a navigation tower for the roadbook and GPS equipment with four high-performance spotlights, race filler caps for quicker refuelling, carbon fibre and Kevlar skid plate, a rally-spec seat, plus a lighter wiring harness and a special handlebar kit with a quick-action throttle release that allows for the attachment of navigation equipment controls.
Charlier not only finished fifth in class but ninth overall in the general classification, and his performance showed just how competitive the Ténéré 700 World Rally fitted with the three GYTR kits is, a feat made even more remarkable when you take into account it was Charlier’s first ever desert rally. The success did not stop there either, as Twinsbike Racing’s Angelo Tazzari made it four Ténéré World Rally bikes in the top six of the 700M class, with the Italian securing 16th overall, whilst his teammate Alessandro Ruoso was fifth in class and seventh overall after Stage 8 before being forced to withdraw after a stray rock, unfortunately, caused irreparable damage to his bike on the ninth stage.
After such a successful AER, Botturi, Tarrés, and the Ténéré Yamaha Rally Team are now gearing up to compete in the Morocco Desert Challenge on the 11-20th of April, and if you would like to find out more about how you can join the team on one of their future rallies as a part of the Ténéré Spirit Experience, click here.
Marc Bourgeois
Ténéré Yamaha Rally Team – Team Manager
“What we achieved at the Africa Eco Race was very special. Pol and Alessandro were sensational and battling for victory until the final day. Pol was very unlucky, and he showed that his pace was there to win the rally if it was not for some misfortune. Alessandro fought right until the final stage in an epic battle with the winner, and to secure a double podium in just our second time racing at the AER is an incredible achievement. It shows just how far we have come with the race bike, and it was also a strong result for Twinsbike Racing’s Angelo Tazzari, but just as important for me was to see how well Nicholas performed. He is the first rider who has joined us through the Ténéré Spirit Experience in the racing category instead of the raid. It was his first time riding in the open desert, and he was riding a standard Ténéré 700 World Rally with the full three-stage GYTR kits fitted, Handling, Performance and Rally. To take on one of the toughest rallies in the world and to finish ninth overall against more experienced riders and the 450cc single-cylinder machines is sensational, and to have four Ténéré in the top six of the 700M class demonstrates the competitiveness of this bike even more. This is the culmination of all our hard work with Yamaha to develop these official GYTR rally kits to allow people to achieve their dreams and go on an adventure without limits.”