VOLUME ISSUE JAUARY , P69
Daniel Sanders has
managed to keep his
lead intact after Stage
Eight and can begin
to see the light at the
end of the tunnel.
"That might have been the
toughest stage yet, especially
the first 100 kilometers, which
were really technical and hard
to navigate, so I lost a fair bit of
time there," Sanders said after
the latest Stage Eight. "After the
refuel, it was really fast, and I
was opening with Edgar [Canet],
which was cool. I made a few lit
-
tle mistakes here and there, but
I have a decent starting position
for tomorrow, so I'm happy."
Schareina's making a much
better go of the Dakar this year
after crashing out on the open
-
ing stage in 2024. Honda had
four factory entries in this year's
race, with three still in conten
-
tion after Pablo Quintanilla was
forced to retire on Stage Eight
following a high-speed crash
that injured his shoulder, and
Schareina knows he's the best
chance Honda has of making
it two Dakar wins in a row after
Ricky Brabec's triumph in 2024.
As he so often does, Adrien
Van Beveren is coming good
right toward the end of the
rally on his factory Honda. The
Frenchman, who has come so
close to winning the Dakar on nu
-
merous occasions, has steadily
marched up on the leaderboard,
having taken the Stage Five win
and landing in the top five on
every stage since.
Another rider making slow
but steady waves is Argentina's
Luciano Benavides. The younger
of the two Benavides brothers
initially took the Stage Five win,
but was demoted to second
after time was awarded back to
The Dakar Rally
enters its final
days this week with
Daniel Sanders
heading the way
after an eventful
week in the
Saudi sand
