Dakar 2015 – Stage Five
Marc Coma wins stage five – Joan Barreda retains outright lead – Toby Price 10th on stage and now 8th outright
Red Bull KTM’s Marc Coma went on the attack on Thursday and picked up his first stage victory of the 2015 Dakar Rally. Coma was able to claw back two minutes of the gap between him and overall leader and rival Joan Barreda during Stage Five that saw riders compete against tough conditions in Chile’s renowned Atacama Desert.
Coma completed the 458 km of timed special in four hours 38-minutes 16-seconds. Barreda was second and retains the overall lead by a margin of 10-minutes 33-seconds .
Coma said it had been another hard day’s riding with the fesh-fesh (fine dust) and plenty of rocks making it difficult to maintain a good rhythm in the first half of the stage. His aim was to exert pressure on Barreda but also to ensure the other riders did not close the gap on the front two. “I am happy about the stage win but the fact is that Joan enjoys a significant advantage and we will try to trim it. There is still a lot of race left. The second part (of the rally) is longer with the marathon stages and it will be a fight every day. We are going in the right direction and we will keep fighting,” he said.
Whilst he does not possess the experience of Marc Coma, Joan Barreda is without doubt just as smart. After having opened a further gap of two minutes on the KTM rider on Wednesday between Chilecito and Copiapo, the official Honda HRC rider had to open the way today, pursued by Coma. This situation only lasted for thirty kilometres, since Barreda preferred to let his countryman lead the way and set the pace. This strategy paid off, because although he gave up slightly more than two minutes to his rival in the general standings, Barreda retains a considerable lead on arrival in Antofagasta.
Joan Barreda – “I led off today until Marc caught up with me. He kept up a cracking pace and I tried to stay as close to him as possible. After the refuelling he really pushed hard. There was a lot of navigation in this very fast stage, as well as a lot of fesh-fesh and stones. The final part was pretty dangerous. I’m happy to be still out in front. We are taking it step by step.”
Behind this duel between the leading duo, Pablo Quintanilla is taking on a new dimension. For his third Dakar, after having dropped out twice, the Chilean put in another noteworthy performance in his home country by completing a second consecutive day as the third placed finisher. These performances have helped him climb up to 4th in the general standings at a little more than eight minutes behind a solid-looking Paulo Gonçalves, on the look-out for the slightest mistake from the Coma/Barreda duo.
Paulo Goncalves – “Today was quite a hard and complicated stage full of stones, fesh-fesh, and holes everywhere. I started out from 12th position, and there was a lot of dust, and I had to be careful, which made me lose a bit of time up until kilometre 100. In the final part, I had a little difficulty finding one of the waypoints and dropped some time. Tomorrow’s starting position is good and I hope to keep up the concentration without making too many mistakes.”
Slovakian Stefan Svitko can also be satisfied with his day, finishing 3-minutes 54’-seconds behind the winner, whilst Jordi Viladoms and Ruben Faria both lost plenty of time. The Yamaha clan is still a significant distance behind the best.
KTM’s newcomers Matthias Walkner of Austria and Australia’s desert racer Toby Price continued to impress. Walkner and Price, both KTM-supported riders finished 8-10, ahead of KTM factory riders Jordi Viladoms and Ruben Faria who were 11 and 15 at the end of the stage.
Toby Price: “Today was another really tough stage, we started stage 5 in 19th position and made our way through to 10th which is positive. There was a lot of dust today which made it extremely tricky to see stones and the correct tracks, you had to really pay attention all day.
“I’m starting to find my bearings a little better with the road book which is great, it’s all about learning for me. There’s still the second part of the rally ahead of us which includes to marathon stages.”
Coma’s teammate Jordi Viladoms was unhappy about having lost time at the start of the stage, “My concentration was not good and I put too much focus on riding the bike and trying to push. I took the wrong track and I lost eight minutes.” Faria, who had been riding with Viladoms suffered the same fate but was quite philosophical, saying “It’s like this in the Dakar, tomorrow is another day and I will try to be better.”
Sherco’s Alain Declos was not backwards in coming forwards on what he thought of stage five; “Frankly, this stage was like a punishment: I hated it. I was expecting it to be like that. My arms are hurting, I’ve no strength left in my hands and I’m right at the limit. There was no respite. You had to keep your wits about you from the start to the finish. Because the tracks were wide you could ride very fast, but riding over the bumps was like stepping on landmines! Even if the suspensions did worked as well as they could, my arms, thighs and back are done in. I’m just happy to finish this special in one piece. I set off thinking this stage would cause plenty of damage and on the face of it, I wasn’t wrong. There were navigation errors and in any case, I haven’t seen many people at the finish yet…”
Stage six takes riders from Antofagasta to Iquique over a total distance of 688 km, of which 319 is timed special.
Dakar Rally2015 Stage Five (provisional)
Copiapó to Antofagasta – 235 km liaison, 458 km special (697 km)
1, Marc Coma, ESP, KTM at 4 hours 38.16
1, Joan Barreda, ESP, Honda at 2.16
3, Pablo Quintanilla, CHI, KTM at 2.40
4, Stefan Svitko, SVK, KTM at 3.54
5, Paolo Goncalves, POR, Honda at 4.37
6, Helder Rodrigues, POR, Honda at 6.36
7, Jeremias Israel Esquerre, CHI at 7.10
8, Matthias Walkner, Austria, KTM, 7.24
9, Alain Duclos, FRA, Sherco, at 9.57
10, Toby Price, AUS, KTM at 10.05
11, Jordi Viladoms, ESP, KTM, at 13.48
12, Joan Pedrero, ESP, Yamaha at 14.25
13, Javier Pizzolito, ARG, Honda at 16.49
14, Ivan Jakes, SVK, KTM at 16.55
15, Ruben Faria, POR, KTM, at 17.24
Dakar 2015 Overall Standings after Stage 5
1, Barreda 17 hours 51.05
2, Coma at 10.33
3, Goncalves, at 22.50
4, Quintanilla at 31.06
5, Viladoms at 36.23
6, Faria at 38.13
7, Walkner at 38.36
8, Price at 39.54
9, Svitko at 42.05
10, Rodrigues, 43.24
Tomorrow – Route Stage Six (Friday, January 9, 2015)
Antofagasta to Iquique – 369 km liaison, 319 km special (688 km)
A celebration in Iquique
The route will then climb up the Pacific coast towards Iquique. The motorcycles will cover a few extra kilometres as part of the special stage: a detour will take them into endurance-type terrain and onto mountain ridges with views over the sea. All the competitors will then explore the dunes which run alongside and dominate the coastline. But they won’t arrive at the bivouac via the famous descent. For the first time, the half-way point in the race will be marked on a podium in the centre of Iquique. The encounter between riders and their fans will be emotional, following the earthquake which affected the region at the start of the year.
