Cyril Despres (born 24 January 1974) is a French rally racer and resident of Andorra. He won the Dakar Rally five times, in 2005, 2007, 2010, 2012 and 2013, riding a KTM motorcycle. He also won the Red Bull Romaniacs, an enduro event, three times, in 2004, 2005 and 2007, and the Erzberg Rodeo in 2002 and 2003. For the 2018 season, he was one of the official drivers of the Team Peugeot Total.
On 10 January 2012, at the 2012 Dakar Rally, Portuguese pilot Paulo Gonçalves pulled Despres out of the mud but Despres did not return the favour. Out of seven riders, all but the Spaniard Marc Coma got stuck; the organisers therefore changed the course. At the end of the stage, the time lost was credited to Despres. Goncalves received a penalty of six hours for receiving external help. Coma was not credited the time he lost by going around the mudhole.
After a closely fought battle with his KTM teammate, Spaniard Marc Coma for the victory, Despres got back into the lead on the penultimate stage (Stage 13) thanks to a mechanical failure on Coma's bike. Despres managed to maintain the lead until the end of the rally. Thus, Despres gained his fourth overall victory on the Dakar Rally, equaling former Honda and Cagiva rider, Italian Edi Orioli's performance.
A new chapter began in Despres' Dakar career in 2015 when he joined the Peugeot team as a driver alongside Carlos Sainz and Stéphane Peterhansel, who previously switched from the motorbike to car category with great success. His co-driver was Gilles Picard, and they finished 34th. In 2016, Despres came in seventh overall; his co-driver was David Castera.
In July 2016, Despres and Castera won the cars' category at the Silk Way Rally. Despres and his partner repeated their success in the next year.
2016 (Peugeot 2008 DKR), 2017 (Peugeot 3008 DKR)
Cyril Despres at eWRC-results.com
Driver profile Archived 2018-01-12 at the Wayback Machine at Worldrallyraid.com
Driver profile at Lerepairedesmotards.com