IN
THE
WIND
The Spaniard finished the fivestage rally a shade over seven
minutes in front of Paolo Goncalves of Portugal and Joan Pedrero of Spain, making it a sweep
of the podium for riders from the
Iberian Peninsula. Frenchman
Despres was fourth in his first
ride on the factory Yamaha.
The final day had a single timed
special of 125 miles and Coma
said it had not been an easy victory on terrain that is more akin to
enduro racing than rally.
"Two hundred kilometers here
in Sardinia is a bit like double that
in the desert. It was four hours
on the bike and it certainly wasn't
easy."
Coma was fifth in the final
stage, but his nine and a half minute margin after stage four was
enough to ensure the victory.
Having announced the new
partnership with Yamaha just last
week, Despres used the rally to
get to grips with the YZ450F-
Marc Coma won the Sardinia Rally last week for
his third rally win of the season.
based bike and get used to racing again after having not competed since the Dakar in January.
"To be perfectly honest I was a
little bit surprised to have finished
second on the first day after just
one day's competition aboard my
new Yamaha– it certainly wasn't
on the program," Despres said.
"My priority was just to get a feel
for the bike and get used to racing again after not having ridden
a bike in anger since January.
TADDY DOES
ERZBERG
S
ince he wasn't racing in the Erzberg
Red Bull Hare Scramble this year,
Taddy Blazusiak played commentator
and tells us what it's like.
Of course I'm a racer at heart
and so never happier than when
competing and then there was
the pleasure of discovering the
YZ450F.
Of course I am disappointed to
have missed the final podium by
just 11 seconds but over five days
that's nothing, a couple of microerrors of navigation. But as they
say in this game, 'that's rally-raid,'
there are always plenty of 'ifs' and
'buts.' "
PHOTOGRAPHY BY RALLY ZONE/KTM IMAGES
P30
