Dakar Update

With only two stages remaining, the 2013 Dakar Rally is come down the stretch.

Nani Roma won his second stage in car class today, holding off Robby Gordon by four minutes and eighteen seconds. Giniel de Villiers finished third with the class leader, Stéphane Peterhansel finishing fourth. Robby Gordon won a shortened stage eleven yesterday after flash flooding ended the stage prematurely.

Stéphane Peterhansel leads de Villiers by fifty minutes and twenty-one seconds in the overall car class standings with Roma in third, one hour, thirty-one minutes and six seconds back. Barring a massive problem, Peterhansel is very well on his way to his second consecutive Dakar Rally victory and his eleventh career Dakar Rally victory, with four previously won in the car class and six in the bike class. Despite Robby Gordon's success (a stage victory, seven stage podiums and nine top five finishes in stages), a rollover during stage four squashed out any chance of competing for the overall podium and he sits sixteenth in the car class, five hours, fifty-three minutes and thirty-two seconds back.

Frans Verhoeven of the Netherlands won the bike class today with American Kurt Caselli finishing eighteenth. Caselli won a fully complete stage eleven in the bike class yesterday but after a disastrous stage eight, which saw him have trouble staying on course, and having three hours and twenty minutes of penalties added to his time, Caselli sits twenty-fifth in the bike class, four hours and forty-five seconds back. Ironically enough, the other American in the bike class, Johnny Campbell finished second in stage eight and finished forty-seventh in stage twelve. He currently sits forty-fourth in the bike class, seven hours, thirty-seven minutes and twenty-one seconds back.

Cyril Despres of France leads in the bike class, five minutes and thirty-nine seconds ahead of Ruben Faria of Portugal and thirteen minutes and forty second ahead of Chilean Francisco López.