P26
WIND
PHOTO COURTESY OF YAMAHA
IN
THE
Quote
OF THE
WEEK
It took until the
eighth stage
for defending
champion Cyril
Despres to win
a stage of the
2014 Dakar
Rally.
" I didn't know
where I was and
neither did anyone
else for about seven
hours - and to make
matters worse, no
one around me could
speak any English,
my phone was flat
and I was starting
to think I was going
to have to live there
until I learned how to
speak Spanish!
"
-Aussie Ben Grabham after
crashing out of the
Dakar Rally in stage four.
drigues. From there he took it to
the finish, beating Honda's Joan
Barreda by two minutes and 10
seconds in the 286-mile stage
that took the riders into Chile for
the first time in the race.
"The idea isn't really to go looking for stage victories, but rather
to try and get back to the front of
the rally as much as possible,"
Despres said. "Today, by making
up the difference on the tracks
between myself and the first riders, I won the special, and that's
always a pleasure."
While Despres could celebrate
his first stage win with his new
team, his rival Marc Coma was
celebrating yet another consistent day in the rally. Coma rode
his Red Bull KTM to third in the
stage behind Despres and Barreda, losing only six seconds to
Barreda in the overall standings.
After eight stages, Coma now
leads the rally by 38 minutes and
eight seconds over the Honda
rider.
Despres, meanwhile, is ninth
overall – two hours and 23 minutes behind – after suffering
through what has been a dismal
rally thus far for the three-time
winner.
The big loser in Monday's
stage was Sherco's Alain Duclos,
the Frenchman losing almost
35 minutes. He is fourth overall,
an hour and 49 minutes behind
Coma.
The rally was marred last week
by the death of Belgian rider Eric
Palante, the 50-year-old passing away in the fifth stage of the
race on the trail from Chilecito
and San Miguel de Tucuman in
Argentina. The circumstances of
Palante's death are still being investigated. He was taking part in
his 11th Dakar as an amateur.
