Red Bull.com

Luc Alphand was born on August 6, 1965, in Briançon, France.

As a skier, Alphand began with a Junior World Downhill title in 1983, and has a superb domestic record, with French downhill championships in 1985, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1997, the Combined title in 1987 and Super-G title in 1988.

On the international stage, Luc won the World Cup downhill titles in 1995, 1996 and 1997, and the latter year also saw him take the Super-G and Overall World Cup crowns.

He first competed in motorsport in the late 1990s, competing for the first time in the legendary Dakar Rally car class in 1998. He won his first event, the World Cup T1 Marathon, in a Mitsubishi Pajero in 1999. After a number of impressive results down the years, Luc achieved the big one by winning the Dakar in 2006, still in a Mitsubishi.

No stranger to the track, either, Luc has competed with great success in the Porsche Carrera Cup and the Le Mans 24 Hours Race, where he has achived podium placings three times in the previous five years in a Chevrolet Corvette.

As a nod to his skiing origins, a black ski run at the resort of Chantemerle, near to his home town of Briançon, is named in his honour.