PHOTOGRAPHY BY M. MARAGNI/KTM IMAGES AND YAMAHA
VOL. 51 ISSUE 3 JANUARY 21, 2014
to compete because of injury and I came
back to win the race. I think this says a
lot about the people I have around me. I
am very proud of this victory. The key to
winning the Dakar was not to make any
mistakes."
Coma's first Dakar win came when the
race was still in Africa – in 2006. He won
again in South America in 2009 and 2011
and he was forced out of last year's race
when he suffered a shoulder injury in the
Moroccan Rally.
Going into the final stage, Viladoms
was being challenged for second by the
factory Yamaha pairing of Olivier Pain and
Cyril Despres but his sixth place in stage
13 earned him second overall. Viladoms
was drafted back to the KTM team after
(Left) Marc Coma
won his fourth Dakar
Rally on Saturday, the
Spaniard cruising into
Valparaiso, Chile with
a lead of almost two
hours.
(Right) Olivier Pain
rode the factory Yamaha to third overall in
this year's Dakar.
P23
several years away to take the place of
Caselli, who was tragically killed in the
Baja 1000. It was Viladom's career best
finish in the Dakar.
Pain battled with his Yamaha teammate Despres in the final stage, beating
his teammate by just 35 seconds in the
final standings at the finish. Despres,
however, was penalized five minutes for a
speed-limit infraction – adding to an hour
of penalties the defending champion had
already accumulated over the course
of his first rally with the factory Yamaha
team. Still, Despres ended the rally fourth
overall.
"I attacked so hard on the special that
my front disc got really hot, causing the
pick up on my trip meter to malfunction,"
