Fr-!!rq
I
-FF-
I
Chrir
lloir finirhcd on inprlsivs foutfi in hir rccond Dokor.
A
lthouSh it
ended
under a cloud of tr4gedy and
with
a
/\ruise ro the
finish rather
than
a race, the 28th edition
ol the
Dakar Rally will still
go
down in the book as the
debut
victor,, for Repsol KTM's Marc Coma, the Spaniard
staying consistent
throughout the event wfiile his
rivals
encoumered
problems.
with
the I 5th and final sta8e of dle
ralb/ goin8 untimed
to
pay
homage to the two
youn8 bq,s who were killed in
the rally's final days, the big
race ended
without
much
excitement on Sunday,
January
15. But to th€ 93 motor-
cycliits, 67 car driveE and J3
truck drivers invoh/ed. tie
finish marked the end of the line after two week of
racinS-
Coma's victory ended up being a
relatively
easy one,
the KTM rider besting
pre-race favorite
and
defendinS
champion Cyril Despres by an hour and 13 minutes, after
rhe Freochman sufiered a shoulder injury in the sixrh stage
of the
rajly-
D6pres,
however, rode
on and still
managed to
linish
s€cond, winninS
four
staSes alonS the way
-
including
two sta€es after the
iniury
But this race ryis all Coma! once his rivals Despres and
lsidre Esteve went down whh iniury Est€ve lres iniured dur-
int the Nouakchott-to-Kiffa n4e of the rally. the Spaniard
forced out ol the race with a ruptur€d rple€n.
,ust
lik€ that,
the Gauloises KTM team's hopes were dashed.
Third
place
overall ended up going to Gio\.anni Sala, the
Reprcl KTM rider winnint stage 13 to wrap up the final
podium position.
The rally also had ups e.nd downs for the Americans,
thouth it ended
postivety,
wth both
Red Bull fiM's Chris
Blais and Team
Pai Rali/ Pen Amerita's
Jonah
St eet finding
success in lhis
)rear's
evert. Blais rode w€ll throughout and
enfu up
just
missint a
podium
finlsh. the Califomiah tinish-
int
fourth overall in his s€cond y€ar in the rally.
"Finally, I rmde h all thG way to D.kar .are and sound,"
Blais laid in a KTl4 rsl.as..
"l'm
.o happy right now. There's
nothinS like cominS ofr the trail ard se€in8 this
pla
