Dakar Stage Eight
Coma Leads; another stage to Despres in Stage Eight of the Dakar
KTM factory riders Marc Coma (Spain) and Cyril Despres (France) continued on Sunday to show why they are the world best rally riders with Despres winning Stage Eight of the Dakar 2009 in front of Coma who continues to retain a commanding lead.
In fighting form after the rest day, the stage victory went to Despres (Red Bull KTM) 1’49 ahead of Coma (Repsol KTM) with local hero Francisco Lopez (KTM) third (at 2’56). David Frétigné, Jonah Street and Ullevalseter all ran into problems allowing Cyril to move up two places to third overall. He is now less than 30 minutes from second-placed Frétigné in the overall standings. Coma continues to maintain an impressive lead of 1h06’28 over Frétigné. He also has a 1h33’34 over Cyril. Alain Duclos (Kaestle KTM) had his best day of the rally so far, finishing fourth (at 12’39) with Jordi Viladoms fifth (at 13’12).
Cyril Despres (Red Bull KTM) 1st on stage eight and 3rd overall (at 1h33’34)
The man who makes the modification to the road book, Jean-Pierre Fontenay said in his notes that today was more rally and than rally-raid and he wasn’t joking, we must have taken 2000 corners. We were riding on something like a smooth white laterite piste and there wasn’t much grip. I tried to stay standing up the whole time, shifting my weight back when braking and then moving it to the middle when accelerating. At refuelling I saw that I had come back on Marc and Lopez and that Fretigne and Street were losing time. Then just after the CP1 we had a tricky bit of off-piste. Towards the end Francisco really attacked and that suit me fine as I wanted to put as much time between me and the guys behind me. Moving up to third has really given me a boost.
Marc Coma (Repsol KTM) 2nd (at 1’49) 1st overall
It was technical today like an Enduro, there wasn’t much grip and it was difficult to maintain a good pace without out-braking yourself. Although it was challenging it was fun to ride. As was predicted I caught up Lopez and Cyril caught me and we crossed the line pretty much together.
Stage Nine: entering the Atacama, the world’s driest desert
Riders on Monday tackle a special of 449 km over a total distance of 537 KM that takes them from La Serena to Copiapo during which they will encounter the notorious Atacama Desert, said to be the world’s driest. This combination of dunes and rocks will be a test of the best during which it will be required for even the leaders to exercise their skills and conserve their energy to tackle long stretches of dunes at the conclusion of the ride.
| Provisional results after eighth stage 1. Cyril Despres, France, KTM 2. Marc Coma, Spain, KTM 3. Francisco Lopez, Chile, KTM 4. Alain Duclos, France, KTM 5. Jordi Viladoms, Spain, KTM 6. David Fretigne, France, Yamaha 7. Gerard Farres Guell, Spain, KTM 8. David Casteu, France, KTM 9. Juan Pedrero Garcia, Spain, KTM 10. Pal Anders Ullevalseter, Norway, KTM | Provisional overall standings after Stage Eight 1. Marc Coma, Spain, KTM 2. David Fretigne, France, Yamaha 3. Cyril Despres, France, KTM 4. Jonah Street, USA, KTM 5 Pal Anders Ullevalseter, Norway, KTM 6. Jordi Viladoms, Spain, KTM 7. Francisco Lopez, Chile, KTM 8. Helder Rodrigues, Portugal, KTM 9. David Casteu, France, KTM 10. Frans Verhofen, Netherlands, KTM |
