Luís Cidade was on a mission to earn a spot in the 2027 Dakar Rally when the W2RC came to his home country. Alas, despite routinely being the fastest of the five Road to Dakar entrants, a mechanical issue in Stage 2 killed any chance he had of securing that ticket.

The Road to Dakar was affixed to the SSV class at the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal, and the highest finisher of the five signed up would automatically earn free registration for next year’s Dakar Rally. Cidade, a regular in the CPTT, likely would’ve walked away with it as he won three stages outright for SSV and finished second on the last day.

However, vehicle trouble struck his Can-Am Maverick R on the second day and he had to retire. With 25 hours and 30 minutes in penalties added to his total time, all he could do was languish in fifth and last for RtD the rest of the way.

With Cidade out of the picture, Andréa Deldossi took advantage to top Stage 2 and lead the rest of the way. While one could argue the Dakar ticket fell into Deldossi’s lap, he was consistently quick and finished fourth in SSV.

Deldossi and his navigator-slash-brother-in-law Jeremy Tricaud are relatively new to rally raids. The 33-year-old Frenchman is a motocross rider who usually competes in the national championship, and has also dabbled in sports car racing. In January, he won the M’Hamid Express in Morocco.

“We wanted to continue with FIA rallies to best prepare for our ultimate goal: the Dakar Rally,” said Deldossi. He and Tricaud also plan to run the Rallye du Maroc in October.

He is the second person to clinch a 2027 Dakar Rally slot via the Road to Dakar in 2026. Jorge Cano was the lone RtD driver at the Sonora Rally, which was run concurrent with the Rally-Raid Portugal, and reached the finish to earn his place.

Mindaugas Sidabras was second, having been included in the Road to Dakar due to a clerical error since he already won the 2025 Rallye du Maroc’s RtD and made his Dakar debut in January. CPTT regulars Rúben Jorge Rodrigues and Bruno Oliveira stood little chance due to vehicle issues.

Results

Finish	Overall	SSV	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	19	4	417	Andréa Deldossi*	Jeremy Tricaud	BTR	12:06:06	Leader
2	31	7	405	Mindaugas Sidabras	Ernestas Cesokas	Izoton Sport	13:44:25	+ 1:38:19
3	37	9	407	Rúben Jorge Rodrigues*	Rui Paulo	Rio Seco Racing	23:43:00	+ 11:36:54
4	41	10	415	Bruno Oliveira*	José Sá Pires	Bruno Oliveira	30:29:07	+ 18:23:01
5	46	12	403	Luís Cidade	Valter Cardoso	South Racing	34:06:56	+ 22:00:50

Stage winners

Stage	Overall	SSV	Driver	Total Time
Stage 1	11	1	Luís Cidade	1:37:40
Stage 2	23	4	Andréa Deldossi*	2:59:32
Stage 3	14	1	Luís Cidade	2:59:09
Stage 4	12	1	Luís Cidade	2:54:35
Stage 5	11	2	Luís Cidade	1:05:32

Featured image: BTR