P22
IN
THE
WIND
DAKAR GETS ROLLING
S
am Sunderland won the first
stage of his young Dakar Rally career on Monday, January 6,
the 24-year-old Brit riding his factory HRC Rally Honda to victory
in the second stage of the event
after finishing ninth in the opening stage. After two days, however, it was Sunderland's Honda
teammate and stage-one winner
Joan Barreda who held the early
overall lead.
Sunderland beat Red Bull
KTM's Francisco Lopez by 39
seconds in the second stage
that took the riders from San Luis
to San Rafael, the Chilean having
ended day one in sixth place.
"There weren't so many
dunes, maybe 50 km or so, but
it was definitely a lot of fun and a
big mixture of terrains and different type of riding – some technical stuff, then some really highspeed stuff," Sunderland said.
"All in all for me it was a good
stage. I arrived at the finish in the
top seven. They said I was first,
so we'll wait and see if anyone
else comes in faster than that. I'll
