Metzge, who won the Paris-Dakar Rally three times, organized the first Louis Vuitton Classic and has been working with the brand ever since.

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"It's the Paris-Dakar rally of birding, " says spokesman John Bianchi, of the National Audubon Society, with a straight face.

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He also turned to motor racing, competing in the Paris to Dakar car rally, before he came out of retirement for one season only, winning the 1973 U.S. pro ski tour.

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He was equally unhappy about the annual Paris-Dakar motor rally in which dozens of rugged vehicles roar through the Sahara, churning up the sands.

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The rally used to take place between Paris and Dakar in Senegal but is now staged in South America for security reasons.

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