Thierry Sabine
Thierry Sabine was a French wrangler, motorcycle racer and founder and main organizer of Paris Dakar.
In 1977 he got lost on the Tchigai Plateau, near the isolated mountain of Emi Fezzan during the Abidjan-Nice Race and realised that the desert would be a good location for a rally where amateurs could test their ability. In December 1977 he established a race from Paris to Dakar and devoted the rest of his life to its organization.
Sabine was killed when his Ecureuil helicopter crashed into a dune at Mali during a sudden sandstorm at 07:30 p.m. on Tuesday 14 January 1986. Also killed onboard was the singer-songwriter Daniel Balavoine, helicopter pilot François-Xavier Bagnoud, journalist Nathalie Odent and Jean-Paul Lefur who was a radiophonic engineer for RTL. Sabine's ashes were later scattered at the Lost Tree in Niger, which the rally thereafter described as the "Arbre Thierry Sabine".
He was featured in the movie released in 1986.
