The Rally of Water will proceed with a totally reformulated route after the General Directorate of Traffic of Madrid (DGT) maintained a negative opinion that makes it impossible to hold the stages planned on Spanish territory. The decision was known just hours before the start of the event, forcing the entities involved to practically reorganize the entire sporting structure of the event.
The entities affected by the decision include CAMI Motorsport, the Eurocity Chaves-Verín, the municipality of Chaves, and the Galician municipalities of Verín, Oímbra, Monterrei and Vilardevós. The organization states that the circumstances are "beyond the entities involved in the event" and that efforts were made until the very last moment to reverse the situation, without success.
Given the impossibility of holding the special stages in Spain, CAMI Motorsport chose not to cancel the event and found an emergency solution. The Chaves stage, covering 12.16 kilometres, will be run three times on Friday, and on Saturday three passes through the Alto Tâmega and Termas Chaves stages will be held. The symbolic start remains at the Main Square in Verín, at 4:15 PM on Friday.
The organization acknowledges that the change represents an "enormous inconvenience", considering that the rally was designed from the outset as a cross-border event. Nevertheless, the entities guarantee that they will continue to work to strengthen the link between Chaves and Verín. With the changes, the event now features 99.90 kilometres of timed stages over a total route of 296.06 kilometres.
