# Blue Rally Bardenas 2026: 111 crews, two departures, the recap Published November 3, 2026 · Field report · The RaidLine team > 111 crews over two departures, a million positions and a four-hour network outage: the recap of the Blue Rally Bardenas 2026, tracked live by RaidLine. - Article (HTML): https://raidline.net/en/blog/blue-rally-bardenas-2026-recap - French version: https://raidline.net/blog/blue-rally-bardenas-2026-bilan - Publisher: RaidLine, white-label mobile app for live GPS tracking, navigation and route management for rally raids: https://raidline.net/ (contact@raidline.net) The second departure finished its route on October 31: after two weeks of racing between the Pyrenees and the Bardenas Reales desert, the Blue Rally Bardenas 2026 ended with 111 crews tracked live. It was the second Access Organisation Group event equipped by RaidLine, after [Blue Rally Europe in July](https://raidline.net/en/blog/blue-rally-europe-2026). Here are the race figures, the October 29 network outage, and what we take away from it. ## Two departures, one setup The Blue Rally Bardenas runs in two fields: 57 crews in Twingos from October 20 to 24, then 54 crews in Renault 4s and 2CVs from October 27 to 31, each on a route of about 900 km. The organization’s vehicles (race direction, mechanics, media team) were tracked on the same map as the competitors. ![A line of crew Twingos drives down a dirt track toward the Castildetierra in the Bardenas Reales](https://raidline.net/public/blog/brb2026-twingo-castildetierra.jpg) *First departure: the Twingos heading for the Castildetierra.* ![Crew Renault 4s follow each other on a dusty track in the Bardenas](https://raidline.net/public/blog/brb2026-4l-2cv-piste.jpg) *Second departure: 4Ls and 2CVs in the Bardenas dust.* The cars carried a [Neyos](https://raidline.net/en/integrations) GPS beacon, and most crews also ran the RaidLine app on their phone. The 59 beacons equipped the cars of the first departure, then were moved to the cars of the second between the two weeks. For the family or sponsor following the race, nothing changed: the same link opened the event map, with no app and no account. Practical information is on the [event page](https://raidline.net/en/events/blue-rally-bardenas-2026). ![A GPS beacon with the Blue Rally logo printed on it, lying on a car dashboard with a USB-C cable plugged in](https://raidline.net/public/blog/brb2026-balise.jpg) *One of the 59 beacons, with the Blue Rally logo printed on it, plugged in on the dashboard.* ![A yellow Renault 4 alone on a dirt track between the Bardenas hills](https://raidline.net/public/blog/brb2026-4l-seule.jpg) *Alone on the track: the beacon and the phone keep sending its position.* ## A million positions Over the two weeks, the platform logged about a million positions: 884,000 sent by the beacons, 117,000 by the app on the crews’ phones. On race days, RaidLine received and published 99.9% of the positions reported by the beacons (843,766 out of 844,945). No position was corrected or made up: the map shows what the beacons and phones sent. ## October 29: four hours without network for the beacons On October 29, during the second departure, an outage at the mobile operator behind the beacons’ SIM cards cut their data transmission for about four hours, from 4:20 pm to 8:45 pm (Paris time). The problem was out of reach for both the organization and us. The map did not go empty. The phones of 50 crews, on their own mobile plans, kept sending positions through the app: 15,013 points during the outage. Race direction and families kept seeing the cars move. The next morning, the beacons that had restarted transmitted the positions stored during the outage, and the tracks were filled in. That is the practical case for pairing a beacon with a smartphone: two sources on two different networks are unlikely to fail at the same time. We compared both approaches in our post [GPS beacon or smartphone](https://raidline.net/en/blog/gps-beacon-vs-smartphone-rally-raid); October 29 showed that on a rally raid, the right answer is often both. ## Race control: 16 SOS alerts, all closed On the race direction side, 16 SOS alerts were raised during the event, mostly mechanical issues, which surprises no one with cars over twenty years old in the Bardenas dust. Each alert reached the race control iPad with the crew’s position, and all of them were handled and closed from race control. How this works is described in our post on [rally raid race control](https://raidline.net/en/blog/rally-raid-race-control-gps). ## What we take away The feedback we received after the finish is very positive: the crews loved the app. On the platform side, we take away three points: - **One setup, two fields.** The beacons moved from one departure to the other between the two weeks, with the same tracking link and the same app. - **Two position sources beat one.** Beacon and phone on different networks: the map held during the October 29 operator outage. - **The map only shows what was received.** No extrapolated points: tracks fill in when the data arrives. ![Aerial view of the second-departure crews gathered among the Bardenas Reales badlands](https://raidline.net/public/blog/brb2026-bardenas-groupe.jpg) *The second-departure crews gathered in the heart of the Bardenas Reales.* We also ran a closed test of [RaidLine TV](https://raidline.net/en/raidline-tv) during the race. Next up: **[Twing Raid 2027](https://raidline.net/en/events/twing-raid-2027)**, February 23 to March 4, 2027, in Morocco. Photos: Blue Rally Bardenas / Team Mazette / @aurelien_vialatte. > **What about your next event?** > RaidLine equips rally raids with a white-label app: live tracking, offline navigation, announcements, real-time leaderboard and race-control tools, with our team on call during the event. Demo available on request. > [Request a demo](https://raidline.net/en/demo) ## Also worth reading - [Blue Rally Europe 2026: a look back at our first event](https://raidline.net/en/blog/blue-rally-europe-2026) - [GPS beacon or smartphone: which one for a rally raid?](https://raidline.net/en/blog/gps-beacon-vs-smartphone-rally-raid) - [Race control: running a rally raid on live GPS tracking](https://raidline.net/en/blog/rally-raid-race-control-gps)