Final Stage of the Dakar Rally

Today marked the thirteenth and final stage of the Dakar Rally and it saw two classes go to the wire.

Giniel de Villiers won the final stage in the car class by twenty-three seconds over Krzystof Holowczyc with Russian Vladimir Vasilyev rounding out the podium forty-one seconds back but the story was the driver who finished fourth.

Nani Roma finished fourth, a minute and forty-second behind de Villiers but six minutes and four seconds ahead of Stéphane Peterhansel, more than enough to over come the deficit the Spaniard face entering the final stage and give Roma his first in the car class and ten years after winning in the bike class. Roma joins Peterhansel as the only two participants to win in multiple disciplines.

The final standings will show Roma won by five minutes and thirty-eight seconds over Peterhansel, who won the most stages in the car class in 2014 at four, with Nasser Al-Attiyah finishing third, fifty-six minutes and fifty-two seconds back. de Villiers finished fourth with Argentine Orlando Terranova rounding out the top five.

The truck class saw just as much drama. It appeared Dutch driver Gérard de Rooy was going to overcome a seven minute and twenty-five second gap to Russian Andrey Karginov but that wasn't the case. Czech Aleš Loprais won by two minutes and twenty-five seconds over de Rooy with Eduard Nikolaev finishing two minutes and fifty-three seconds back in third. Karginov finished six minutes and thirty-nine seconds back in seventh.

Karginov held off de Rooy by three minutes and eleven seconds with Nikolaev finishing more than ninety-minutes back his fellow Russian driver. This is Karginov's first career Dakar Rally victory after leading the truck class with four wins in 2014.

Cyril Despres will not make it back-to-back years as Dakar champion but he ends the 2014 edition with his third stage victory. The Frenchman defeated Joan Barreda Bort by two minutes and thirty seconds with Olivier Pain giving France a second representative on the podium, three minutes and ten seconds back of Despres. Hélder Rodrigues finished fourth, forty-three seconds back of Pain with Spaniards Juan Pedrero and Jordi Viladoms taking the next two positions.

Marc Coma finished eighteenth on the day, eighteen minutes and twenty-three seconds back of Despres but the Spaniard had a large enough gap entering the final stage that he has won his fourth Dakar Rally. Coma won by one hour fifty-two minutes and twenty-seven seconds over Viladoms. Pain finished third two hours and three seconds back. Despres finished fourth, thirty-five seconds back of Pain. Rorigues finished fifth ahead of Pole Kuba Przygonski and Barreda Bort. Barreda Bort won the most stages in the bike class with four.

Coma's victory extended KTM's winning streak in the Dakar to thirteen consecutive races.

American Mike Johnson finished the final stage sixty-first, thirty-three minutes and fifty seconds back. Johnson finished the Dakar Rally in seventy-fourth, nearly forty and a half hours back of Coma.

In the quad class, Ignacio Casale won his first career Dakar Rally in style. Not only did he win on home soil but took his seventh stage victory in this year's race. The Chilean defeated Dutchman Sebastian Husseini by fifty-four seconds to take the stage. Rafał Sonik finished three minutes and seven seconds back in third.

Overall Casale won by one hour twenty-six minutes and forty-nine seconds over Sonik. Husseini finished third, over five hours and forty minutes back. This is the first Dakar victory for a Chilean and Yamaha's undefeated record in the Dakar quad class remains intact, having won all six runnings of the quad class.

And that does it for the 2014 Dakar Rally. Spain see two victors while the quad and truck class each see first time winners. Congratulations to all who were able to finish this year's race. It is truly an accomplishment in of itself.