HRC Honda’s Joan Barreda wins his fourth stage of the 2014 Dakar Rally, but Marc Coma still holds a strong overall lead as the rally works its way through Chile.
Attrition has been high in the 2014 Dakar Rally, with only 82 of the 175 entries starting today’s 10th stage from Iquique to Antofagasta in Chile. Once again, Team HRC Honda’s Joan Barreda carried out another stage win. And once again, Red Bull KTM’s Marc Coma made sure that Barreda made as small a dent in Coma’s overall lead as possible.
Coma even got some help before the stage even began, as it was announced that Barreda had been slapped with a 15-minute penalty for speeding through a controlled area in yesterday’s stage. But Barreda refused to let the penalty derail his focus.
Barreda started the first of today’s two special tests in 10th place, and it gave him the benefit of being able to ride aggressively as he followed the tire tracks of the riders who started before him. By the end of the day, he had passed six riders during the route’s 684 kilometers and taken his ninth career Dakar stage win and fourth of 2014, with a time of 4 hours and 42 minutes flat, 8 minutes ahead of his Portuguese teammate, Hélder Rodrigues, and 9 minutes and 40 seconds ahead of Cyril Despres.
“It’s not easy to win four stages,” Barreda said. “I’m happy because it followed the trend of the rally so far, with a nice feeling, lots of speed and good navigation. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow. It’ll be difficult again because there’ll be lots of kilometers and the dunes of Copiapó. The day after that will also be tough. We’ll see. We’re getting closer. Nothing is lost yet. Marc [Coma] has a sizeable lead, but anything can happen.”
Not that there is any reason for Coma to be worried, even though the next two stages could provide as much potential for disaster as today’s dune route, Although he was fifth across the line today, with a time of 4:53:26, he still holds a strong 44-minute and 10-second lead over Barreda and has more than 2 hours in hand on teammate Jordi Viladoms. Still, the cautious “Rally General” isn’t taking anything for granted.
“It wasn’t an easy day,” Coma said. “It was a long day. Nothing’s certain yet. We’ve still got to tackle the dunes of Copiapó. The day after that will be tough too. We’ve still got very difficult days ahead, anything can happen. We’ll see. Sure, everything’s gone well so far, but anything can happen. The slightest mistake can cost you loads of time.”
As for defending Dakar Rally Champion Despres, he was second off the start line today and quickly caught up with Coma, giving Coma a reliable rabbit to chase to the finish. Despres rode a strong stage and finished third today, with a time of 4:51:40, 1 minute and 31 seconds ahead of teammate Olivier Pain, who was fourth. Despres also moved up to sixth place in the overall standings.
“It was lots of fun,” Despres said. “It was a maze this morning, what with all the dunes and valleys. I came across Marc at kilometer 14. I think he wanted me to get in front to open the course. We ended up riding together all day long, and the rest never caught up with us. We laughed ourselves silly a short while ago: We turned too early and ended up in a canyon, so we had to go up a long climb to get back on track. He managed to do it in one go, but I came up 10 meter short! It was quite fun… We went fast, which is good for me, in the overall. This moves me back up the classification, I don’t know how far I’ll get, but I’m trying.”
Bad luck befell some of the rally’s strong contenders again today. Chile’s Jeremías Israel was forced to drop out due to a crash and thus relinquished his fourth overall position to Pain. With three stages left, the battle for the podium still promises to be interesting, as Pain, Rodrigues, Despres and Poland’s Kuba Przygoński are all in the hunt within 13 minutes and 3 seconds of one another.
Stage 11 tomorrow will run from Antofagasta to El Salvador. The route features 144 kilometers of transfer sections and a huge 605-kilometer special test. The competitors will continue to be tested by the Atacama Desert, which should be a benefit to those with plenty of desert experience. With mine tracks, river crossings and the Dunes of Copiapo all figuring prominently in the stage, even the fastest motorcyclists are expected to take 7 hours to complete the stage. Tomorrow will be another chance to suffer a potential knockout blow or perhaps make a winning comeback.
2014 Dakar Rally
Stage 10
Iquique-Antofagasta, Chile
Results: January 15, 2014
1. Joan Barreda-Hon/04:42:00
2. Helder Rodrigues-Hon/+00:08:00
3. Cyril Despres-Yam/+00:09:40
4. Olivier Pain-Yam/+00:11:11
5. Marc Coma-KTM/+00:11:26
6. Kuba Pryzgonski-KTM/+00:15:08
7. Stefan Svitko-KTM/+00:15:14
8. Javier Pizzolito-Hon/+00:16:58
9. Ivan Jakes-KTM/+00:18:17
10. Daniel Gouet-Hon/+00:19:27
Dakar Rally Standings (After 10 of 13 stages)
1. Marc Coma-KTM/41:48:33
2. Joan Barreda-Hon/+00:44:10
3. Jordi Viladoms-KTM/+02:02:03
4. Olivier Pain-Yam/+02:16:12
5. Helder Rodrrigues-Hon/+02:21:16
6. Cyril Despres-Yam/+02:28:27
7. Kuba Pryzgonski-KTM/+02:29:15
8. Daniel Gouet-Hon/+03:05:54
9. Stefan Svitko-KTM/+03:33:37
10. David Casteu-KTM/+03:41:44
Your Privacy Choices