Thursday, January 16, 2014

Stage Eleven of the Dakar Rally

A Spaniards and a Chilean extended their class leads in stage eleven while one class changed as we enter the final days of the Dakar. There was also a penalty that changed the result in the bike class.

It appeared Marc Coma was going to extend his lead by winning stage eleven by two minutes and fifty-one seconds over Cyril Despres but the Spaniard was assessed a fifteen minute penalty dropping him to tenth on the day.

Despres won the stage by two minutes and thirty-seven seconds over Olivier Pain. Jordi Viladoms finished third, twenty-five seconds back of Pain with Joan Barreda Bort and Hélder Rodrigues rounding out the top five.

With the penalty, Coma leads Barreda Bort by thirty-seven minutes and thirty-six minutes overall. Viladoms remains third, an hour and fifty-two minutes back of Coma. Pain is under fourteen minutes back of Viladoms in fourth. Rodrigues finished fifth on the day and is fifth overall with Despres now less than a minute behind the Portuguese rider in sixth place.

Mike Johnson finished sixty-fourth on stage eleven, three hours one minute and nineteen seconds back of Despres. Johnson is sixty-sixth overall, over thirty-eight hours behind Coma.

Orlando Terranova won by ten minutes and fifty-seven seconds over Nani Roma but Roma was able to extend his lead after losing a lot of ground to Stéphane Peterhansel since the rest day. Giniel de Villiers finished third, twelve minutes and thirty-eight seconds back with Peterhansel coming back in fourth, fourteen minutes and fourteen seconds back.

Roma's lead over Peterhansel is now five minutes and thirty-two seconds with two stages to go. Nasser Al-Attiyah is third, fifty-six minutes and one second back after finishing fifth place today. Terranova is fourth is seven minutes and thirty-eight seconds back of Al-Attiyah.

Ignacio Casale won his fifth stage of the 2014 Dakar Rally and his first Dakar victory seems inevitable. Fellow Chilean Victor Manuel Gallegos Lozic made it a Chile 1-2 in class as he finished five minutes and twelve seconds back of Casale. Qatari rider Mohammed Abu-Issa finished third sixteen minutes and nine seconds back. Rafeł Sonik finished fourth, nineteen minutes and twenty-seven seconds back with Sebastian Husseini a minute and forty-nine seconds back of Sonik in fifth.

Casale leads Sonik by one hour four minutes and thirty-two seconds. Husseini is nearly five hours back in third.

Andrey Karginov won his fourth stage and third of the last four and has taken the overall lead in the truck class. Karginov finished fourteen minutes and eighteen seconds ahead of Eduard Nikolaev and fifteen minutes and fifty-one seconds ahead of class leader entering the day Gérard de Rooy.

Karginov leads de Rooy by seven minutes and fifty-six seconds with two days to go. Nikolaev is over a hour and half back in third. Karginov is going for his first Dakar victory and would become the fourth different Russian to win the truck class in the history of the Dakar Rally.