The year's event promises to be even tougher than last year, with more than 120 competitors compared to last year's 70-odd. Of the new drivers, some are professionals who have raced the modern Paris-Dakar, so placing as well as last year's 11th is going to be tough. GstaadLife.com readers will remember last year's drama when de Sadeleer and Ledi Garage's Hansueli Brand were detained by the Mauritanian army along the disputed border with Morocco-annexed Western Sahara (see Team Gstaad detained by Mauritanian army). We hope for no such drama for this year's Gstaad team, who will be racing in the same 1994 Land Rover Discovery Series 1 as last year.

Here at GstaadLife.com we'll have regular coverage from the desert, with Team Gstaad carrying the very latest in mobile blogging technology from Nokia to deliver to us live photos and video from the sands of western Africa. To get a taste of what we're in for, click on the links below or watch the video. The official race website is here. And check back with us regularly over the next 18 days to follow their progress. GstaadLife.com wishes de Sadeleer and Janssens the best of luck and a safe run down to Senegal.

Above: Stanislas de Sadeleer (left) with co-pilot Vincent Janssens (right) making final checks on their 1994 Land Rover Discovery which was prepared for this year's rally by Hansueli Brand (center) and the team at Ledi Garage in Feutersoey.

Team Gstaad Automobile Club is sponsored in part by ING Private Banking.

Full coverage from Transafricaine Classic Rally 2006 [DE = auch auf Deutsch] :