KTM Off-Road Racing Team rider Toby Price’s Dakar Rally adventure has begun, with the first stage of the event from Buenos Aires to Villa Carlos Paz getting underway in Argentina.

The 2015 edition of the world’s biggest off-road racing event is a 14-day 9000-plus kilometre epic traversing Argentina, Chile and Bolivia, and beginning and ending in Buenos Aires.

Today’s opening stage gave motorcycle competitors a rapid acclimatisation to at least one of the specific demands of Dakar racing, with a solid 838 kilometres in the saddle that included 175 kilometres of special stage, followed by 519km of connection route to the first bivouac.

Aussie Price acquitted himself well on his first ever day of Dakar racing, posting the 11th fastest time to be just 3 minutes 31 seconds behind today’s winner Sam Sunderland, who led home Paolo Goncalves and defending champion Marc Coma.

“Today went really well,” Price recalled. “I’m still just learning at the moment and the navigation wasn’t too hard today, we ended up 11th today after the first stage so I’m stoked! Tomorrow is the longest stage of the Dakar – 518km, the first 300km looks a little tricky but fairly fast with some technical navigation sections judging from my road book.”

While the first stage was a taste of things to come, tomorrow’s second stage from Villa Carlos Paz to San Juan will shatter any illusions of a gentle buildup of load, with a massive 518km special stage stretching concentration spans to the limit.

The first 80 kilometres of tomorrow’s special stage will see competitors climb from 1000 to 2000m, before refuelling twice during the timed section.