VOLUME ISSUE JANUARY , P49
with a trophy, so that's the most
important thing. I'm ready for
another one next year."
American audiences dared
to dream with Skyler Howes
who's career song has got to be
Journey's Don't Stop Believing.
Howes led from stage six to nine,
lost the lead to Benavides on
stage 10, got it back on stage 11,
and lost it for good to Price on
stage 12 as the KTM juggernaut
clicked into high gear. Regard
-
less, it was a breakthrough per-
formance from Howes who adds
a Dakar podium to his win at the
Rallye Du Maroc last October.
"I arrived at the finish safely,
and it feels like a dream come
true and such an honor to share
it with two legends like Toby
and Kevin," Howes said on the
podium. "Everyone knows what
you have to go through to get to
this point, and after all that hard
work, it makes this moment feel
so sweet. Of course, I want to
come back and see what the
other two steps of the podium
feel like."
"Thankfully I didn't make any
big mistakes, but it would have
been easy to have an issue out
there today," Benavides said at
the finish line. "I have worked so
hard for this. This year's rally has
been one of the closest ever and
there wasn't a single day where
you could afford to ease off."
Price, who failed to take a
stage win on the Dakar this year
aside from the short Prologue
before stage one, led into the fi
-
nal stage by 12 seconds but was
unable to hold Benavides back,
the Australian missing three cru-
cial waypoints that handed the
advantage to his teammate.
"So, so close. Yeah, a great
job from Kevin, he did really well
today," Price said. "I knew it was
going to be tight, and of course
I pushed right from the start all
through the stage. I just missed
three waypoints by virtually
meters, and it dropped me back.
Obviously, the goal is to win, and
it's frustrating to miss out by
such a narrow margin. But I'm
fit, healthy, and I'm going home
It was a final farewell to the
Dakar in typically explosive
style for Joan Barreda. The
Spaniard, who lies third overall
in stage victories behind Cyril
Despres and Marc Coma,
took the win on stage four but
crashed out on stage nine.
Price came on strong
towards the end of the rally
and it looked like he might
pull off a third Dakar title
were it not for his charging
teammate. He becomes
the first rider to lose the
Dakar after leading into the
final stage.
