Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127367
GOFF·ROAD Paris-tn-Dakar Rally ~ Peterhansel's teamma te and fellow countryman Thierry Magnaldi finished second. P eterhansel adds ParisDakar to win list By P au l Blezard PARIS, FRANCE. JAN. 1 ·20 rench man Stephane Peterhansel, th e 25-year-old two-time ISDE o vera ll winn er and European enduro star, won the 5700-mile Paris to-Dakar Rally in what was his fourth attempt. Pi loting a Sonauto-sponsored works Yama ha Super Tenere YZE750T , a four-s tro ke twin , Peterha nsel scored th e first win by a Yam ah a rider since priva teer Cyril Neveau 01 Fran ce scor ed two consecu tive victories on a Yamah a XT600 in 1979-80. Peterhansel held the lead at the halfway stage at Agad ez an d was chase d across the fini sh line by fellow cou nt ryma n Gil es Lal ay, riding a Ch es terfield-ba cked Yamaha , and Peterhan sel' s Son auto Yam aha team mate, Thierry Magnaldi, also from France. . The ra lly was o nce again a gr uelling event, as 44 of the 11 3 rid ers that started the compe titio n dropped o ut during the first week and only 41 made it to the finish. Fo r the third year in a row the rally ran through L ib ya and one rider keepi ng a low profi le th er e wa s' Am eri can Da n n y La Po r te. The Yamaha-mounted Californian made the mos t of his Fren ch ancestry, calli ng h imself Dan iel LaPorte, and did his best to spea k French when Libyan nati on al s were aro u nd and was rewarded wit h a ha ssl e-f ree ti m e. LaPorte was the first American to compe te in the rally since the late Chuck Stearns came in fifth a t his first at temp t in 1986. LaPorte, the '1982 250cc MX Wor ld Ch ampion and two-tim e Baja 1000 win ner, p u t hi s off-roa d experience to good use, as he took the lead o ver ParisDakar vetera ns on several occasions in the early stages. T he first special test was a two-day marathon - the first of four in the F Frenchman Stephane Peterhansel was the overall winner at the Paris-Dakar Rall y. American Da nny LaPorte was a front-runner before sufferi ng injuries in a cras h . 26 rally - with an overn igh t break and no work all owed on the machines, wha tsoever. Consequently, the factoryba cked r ide rs rode co nservatively. Itali an Alessandro de Petr i was fastest man on th e first'day, bu t paid the price in the secon d half of the stage wh en hi s foam innertube melted well sho rt of th e fini sh. Best rid er over th e first two days was Magnaldi, foll owed by Spa in 's Jordi . Arcarons, o n a works Cagiva, who was just ah ead of La Porte. Five-time winner Neveu fell twice o n the next stage and had endless prob' lems with his works Cagiva, A section in Niger was fast, despite a very rocky sectio n halfway through , and Alessandro De Petri justified hi s reputation as the fastest ma n on two wheels in th e desert , by averaging mor e th an 70 mp h in that sectio n. Both Peterhansel and La Porte had problems with their foa m in nertubes and th e American crashed twice, losing 50 minutes on De Petr i. Italian Edi Orioli slipped into the overa ll lead just two minutes ahead of Magnald i, Dirkou to Agadez was th e second two-da y maratho n stage and took the competitors right th ro ug h the heart of the T enere Desert. To the deligh t of tw o -ti me w inner Belgian G aston Rah ier, h is protege j ean-Christophe Wag ner, the younges t of the wor ks riders at just 22, wo n his first stage on a wo rks Suzu ki single at the head of a bunch of fast 'riders wh o covered the 250 mil es in j ust over th ree and a half hoursl La Porte was slo wed by a blow n fuse and his fuel tan k comi ng adrift and De Petri also had electrical trouble. The new uno fficial leader was • Arcarons, mere seconds ahea d of his Cagiva teammate Orioli . A 300-mile ga llo p across the Tenere took the ra lly to its halfway stage an d