504-kilometer route that crossed
the rugged Hejaz Mountains
along the eastern edge of the
Red Sea.
As the course opened out
across the fast sandy plains
of the Medina Province, Bra
-
bec recorded the fastest stage
time
outright, but time bonuses
earned by Sanders and Canet ul-
timately dropped him to third on
the day, 1:46
down. Californian
Brabec retains third overall, now
2:18 off the lead.
"It was a long day, full of
rocks, but I enjoy the rocks, so
hopefully we have more days like
this," Brabec said. "Fortunately,
I couldn't make a push to grab
some bonus time, but I did the
best I could to keep up with the
boys up front."
Fourth on Stage Two was the
best result so far for Brabec's
factory Honda teammate and
U.S. compatriot Skyler Howes.
The Utahn outpaced the third
Monster Energy Honda HRC
machine of Tosha Schareina by
29 seconds on Stage Two, but a
crash on Stage One saw Howes
lose several minutes to the lead
-
ing quartet in the overall. Howes
would
finish ninth on Stage One,
nearly 10 minutes off the win-
ning pace of youngster Canet.
Howes
now lies seventh overall
after his Stage Two rescue job.
"Today started out a little bit
slow in the rocks, but once it
opened up with the high speeds,
I felt good, at home, and happy
to bring in a decent stage finish.
So really happy and looking
forward to Stage Three," Howes
said.
Schareina is fourth overall
after banking a sixth place on
the Prologue, fourth on Stage
One and fifth on Stage Two. The
Spaniard is chasing his first ca
-
reer Dakar title and lies 4:41 off
the lead at the time of
writing.
Fifth is Botswanan Ross
Branch (Hero). Branch's rally
started with a fifth on the open-
ing Prologue and looked to have
taken
a turn for the better in
Stage One when he banked the
fastest time but was docked
seven minutes for speeding,
dropping him to seventh on the
stage and in the overall. Another
VOLUME 63 ISSUE 1 JANUARY 6, 2026 P25
Edgar Canet started
perfectly, taking the
Prologue and Stage One
to become the youngest
stage winner in the
history of the Dakar.
