Red Bull KTM’s Marc Coma wins the marathon Stage 5 and pulls clear of the field in the Brazilian rally.
Spain’s Marc Coma continued his surgical style at the Rally dos in Brazil, Thursday, to claim his third stage victory out of the five run thus far.
In the first marathon stage, the longest of the rally, the Red Bull KTM rider posted the fastest time and pulled a clear advantage over his main rival, Team HRC’s Paulo Goncalves after the Portuguese rider ran into trouble. Although Goncalves still finished third in the stage, behind Brazil’s Jean Azevedo, Coma made time and now enjoys a clean 7-minute lead in the overall standings.
The 654.44-kilometer marathon stage connected the cities of Sao Francisco and Diamantina, with 335.98 kilometers of the stage being run on the clock. One 5-kilometer section was particularly brutal, resembling a trials or hard enduro section rather than a typical rally section. Coma negotiated the section with no issues and went on to complete the stage in 4 hours, 34 minutes and 55 seconds.
“It was the most complete stage of the rally, with much trial, much navigation, and I tried to keep a good pace,” Coma said. “I’m very happy for today. It was a great day.”
Goncalves ran at the head of the pack for most of the stage before a navigational error cost him about 3 minutes, allowing both Coma and Azevedo to overtake him.
“Today was a long and difficult day,” Goncalves said. “I opened the track and rode well. It was a very difficult special with a lot of rocks, sharp curves, very mountainous, a lot of gravel and just like a trial. Some 20 kilometres from the finish, I made a mistake with the notes and took the wrong track, which cost me about three minutes. But I’m second in the overall, seven minutes behind Marc, and we still have two days left to attempt to make up the time and try and finish ahead.”
Goncalves’ teammate, Helder Rodrigues, struggled early in the stage but came on strong in the second part of the timed special to finish fourth, ahead of Red Bull KTM’s Jordi Villadoms.
Goncalves is still optimistic that he can pull back the time he lost to Coma. Bike durability will be the key, as Thursday’s marathon stage meant that the bikes were impounded in the parc fermé, and are not allowed to be worked on by the race crews until the end of today’s stage. Only the riders themselves were permitted to change the rear wheels at the end of Thursday, a safety allowance made after the tough Stage 5 mercilessly shredded their rear tires.
Today the riders face the second part of the marathon stage, which will be a loop, starting and finishing in the same bivouac. The circuit will total 204 kilometers, with a 178.87-kilometer special stage.
FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship, Round 5
Rally dos Sertões
Brazil
Results: August 28, 2014 (Stage 5 of 7)
Stage 5
1. Marc Coma-KTM/04:34:55
2. Jean Azevedo-Hon/+00:04:33
3. Paulo Goncalves-Hon/+00:04:56
4. Helder Rodrigues-Hon/+00:06:09
5. Jordi Viladoms-KTM/+00:07:16
6. Ruben Faria-KTM/+00:08:18
7. David Casteu-KTM/+00:09:02
8. Sam Sunderland-KTM/+00:09:32
9. Ike Klaumann-Hon/+00:10:08
10. Ramon Oliveira Sacilotti-Kaw/+00:20:05
Rally dos Sertões Provisional Standings (After 5 of 7 Stages)
1. Marc Coma-KTM/14:18’50
2. Paulo Goncalves-Hon/+00:07:00
3. Jean Azevedo-hon/+00:14:10
4. Helder Rodrigues-Hon/+00:17:42
5. Jordi Viladoms-KTM/+00:21:36
6. Ruben Faria-KTM/+00:24:40
7. Sam Sunderland-KTM/+00:29:04
8. David Casteu-KTM/+00:34:01
9. Ike Klaumann-Hon/+00:35:42
10. Ramon Oliveira Sacilotti-Kaw/+00:54:37
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