Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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VOL. 52 ISSUE 2 JANUARY 13, 2015 P31 Coma. Barreda finished close behind Coma and maintained his lead over his teammate, Goncalves, and Walkner (now in third). Coma's strong finish ad- vanced him to fourth overall. Despite gaining a sizeable lead in the first days of the rally, Barre- da was not counting any chick- ens. "The advantage is really small; it's nothing different. Now we go to Chile and there will be different stages and a different feeling. We need to remain fo- cused on our planning, so noth- ing is different. We will continue like this." As the Dakar Rally headed into Chile, riders climbed to a stag- gering height of over 15,000 feet as they made their way across the Andes. But despite the high altitude, low temperatures, rough terrain and tricky navigation, Barreda continued his assault and managed to put another two minutes over the field. "I'm delighted," Barreda com- mented after Stage 4. "I've got a good strategy; we're in con- trol. The next few days will be extremely tough. Actually there's a big chunk of Dakar left and we know there are tricky situations ahead." The plan from that point was to simply keep an eye on Coma and follow his strong pace—a feat that seemed simple enough at that point. But as Coma's experience revealed, anything can and does happen in Dakar. On Stage 5, riders headed north through Chile and into the dreaded "fesh-fesh" (silt) sec- tions. Coma had begun to chip away at Barreda's lead and was now into second place. While he admitted it would be hard to run down Barreda, he declared "We will try like hell until the last day." Barreda's teammate Goncalves had maintained a strong pace, but slipped back to third in the overall. Native Chilean Pablo Quintanilla began to shine with another third- place finish and advanced in the standings, while KTM's Ruben Faria and Jordi Villadoms each lost a chunk of time in the dunes of the Atacama Desert. Honda's Helder Rodrigues took the win on Stage 6 ahead of Australian Toby Price, who was starting to impress with his navi- gational skills. Barreda carded a modest sixth, but still finished where he needed to—in front of Coma. Following Stage 6 was a much- needed rest day for the motorcy- cles before they headed into the first marathon stage of the Dakar Rally. It was there that the race took a dramatic turn. Coma took a solid chunk of time back from Barreda on Stage 7, capitalizing on the Honda rid- er's misfortune. Barreda crashed in the muddy conditions in Bo- livia and broke his handlebar during the Stage 7 special, and was forced to limp his CRF450 RALLY to the finish riding with only one handlebar. Remarkably, Barreda only conceded six min- utes to Coma, and still retained the lead. But the second half of the marathon stage only spelled more bad luck for him and the HRC team. Stage 8 was a major shakeup in the Dakar Rally, with the stage starting out on the soggy salt flats in Uyuni. Mechanical fail- ures wreaked havoc on the field, as four of the top 20 dropped out, including Villadoms and top Yamaha riders Alessandro Bot- turi and Michael Metge. Barreda fell victim to mechanical issues, as well, but was determined to reach the finish at any cost. Through the help of his HRC teammate Jeremias Israel, Barre- da was being towed through the dunes of Iquique toward the end of the stage. Coma gained control with a modest ninth-place finish on the day, calling it "a very extreme day that was not easy." After Stage 8, he sat at a nine-minute, 11-sec- ond advantage over Goncalves. Quintanilla had steadily made his way into third overall, and has even closed the gap on second- place rider Goncalves. Price continues to surprise everyone (including himself) with his navi- gational prowess and now finds himself in fourth overall ahead of KTM's Stefan Svitko. HRC's Laia Sanz also reach an incredible feat by finishing fifth on Stage 8, moving her HRC Honda into the top-10 overall. With Barreda now hours be- hind, Coma has one less com- petitor to worry about, but the Red Bull KTM rider is still far from finished with five days remaining, and Goncalves and now Quinta- nilla are within striking distance. Jean Turner