VOL. 53 ISSUE 1 JANUARY 12, 2016 P29
to be the front-runner, but was
later hit with a time penalty that
stripped him of the overall win,
which instead went to his team-
mate Kevin Benavides.
Stage 4 marked the first full
stage (no detours or abbre-
viations needed) of the Dakar
Rally. Once again, Barreda laid
down an impressive time, but
incurred a time penalty—this
time five minutes. Despite his
time penalties, Barreda was still
within striking distance of the
overall lead, which was held by
his teammate Paulo Goncalves
at this point. The HRC team
held the top three spots in the
general ranking, but that was
about to change as the KTM
team had a different tactic for
the marathon stage.
Red Bull KTM riders admit-
ted to riding conservatively in
the first half of the marathon
stage (Stage 4) so they could
ride stronger in the second half.
Just as promised, the orange
riders turned up the speed in
Stage 5 with Price taking the
win and KTM support rider
Stefan Svitko in second followed
by Red Bull KTM's Matthias
Walkner. Goncalves still held the
lead, but not by much.
Stage 6 marked the longest
special of the rally, and also
signaled disaster for Barreda.
A mechanical failure left him re-
quiring a tow from his teammate
Paolo Ceci to get to the finish.
Five hours behind and strug-
gling with a hand injury, Barreda
withdrew from the race.
El Niño reared its head once
again in Stage 7, with an icy
downpour prompting race of-
ficials to cancel the second spe-
cial of the day. The day was also
marred by the withdrawal of Red
Bull KTM's Matthias Walkner,
who had been running third in
the overall behind Price. Walkner
was helicoptered out after a hard
crash suffered early in the stage,
which resulted in a broken femur
for the young Austrian.
Walkner and Barreda weren't
the only top riders to see a pre-
mature end to their race. Rock-
star Energy Husqvarna lost Pela
Renet (on Stage 4) and Ruben
Faria (Stage 6) to crashes, leav-
ing the fate of the Husky team
to Pablo Quintanilla.
The end of Stage 7 signaled
the halfway point and a rest day
for riders, who got a much-
needed break in Salta, Argenti-
na. HRC's quiet and consistent
Paulo Goncalves leads the way
with a three-minute lead over
Price, and fellow KTM rider
Svitko in a solid third place.
Husqvarna's Quintanilla is a full
18 minutes back in fourth place,
but with plenty of race miles to
go, anything can happen. As
Price said, "It's far from over.
A mechanical or a navigational
mistake can destroy every-
thing."
American riders including
Ricky Brabec and Alexander
Smith (son of off-road legend
Malcolm Smith) have all made it
to the halfway point, and con-
tinue to show consistency and
improvement day by day. Bra-
bec, in his Dakar debut, got out
to a modest start, but is gaining
confidence and experience
each day, as evidenced by his
top-10 finishes in Stages 6 and
7. The young Honda rider is up
to 12
th
place in the general rank-
ing with six more days to go.
Stay tuned to CycleNews.com
for daily updates on the 2016
Dakar Rally.
Jean Turner
(Top) Australian Toby Price is Red
Bull KTM's best hope of an overall
win. (Bottom) American rider Ricky
Brabec is doing well in his first-ever
Dakar Rally, sitting 12
th
overall at the
halfway point.
