“Bang Bang” Barreda breaks through to win Dakar Rally Stage 2 in Argentina.
Team HRC Honda’s Joan Barreda may want to win the 2015 Dakar Rally more than any motorcycle rider on the face of the earth.
That notion would be hard to quantify, but after posting more stage wins than any other bike rider over the past two Dakar rallies, the Spaniard has yet to finish better than seventh place despite his displays of brilliant speed. Today, during Stage 2 from Villa Carlos Pas to San Juan, Barreda showed that speed again by picking up his 10th career stage win and his first of this year’s Dakar Rally.
Barreda battled with two Red Bull KTM riders—reigning Dakar Rally Champion Marc Coma and Stage 1 winner Sam Sunderland during today’s 518-kiloneter special test, and he was able to capitalize when both men experienced setbacks near the end of the stage, with Sunderland’s rally victory hopes taking a turn for the worse.
“I am really happy,” Barreda said. “Today was amazing. It was really hard, really tough in the last part of special with a lot of tracks and a lot of bumps and it was so physical. But today was one of these days where it is important to get to the finish and we’ve got here so we are really happy. I was alone in some parts, but the most important was to remain calm over the first kilometers and finally we did a really good job. I think it’s a good opportunity for victory but the race is really close, so if we can perform like today and gain some minutes and seconds, then it’s very important.”
Coma struggled with tire issues that forced him to back off the gas during the final 60 kilometers, and he mustered an eighth-place finish in the stage, dropping him to sixth overall.
“We know that today was a very tough day,” Coma said. “We started in the morning with a good feeling, not pushing too hard because we knew it was a long day. But on the other side, I felt that 60 kilometers from the end my rear tire was finished and I started to ride no faster than 60 k/ph, no faster than that. Ok, we lost some time today, but at the end I’m lucky because normally I could have stayed stuck in the desert all the day.”
Sunderland’s day was disastrous, to say the least, as he got lost and burned nearly two hours while trying to sort out his navigational error. His 72nd-place finish today has effectively put a coffin lid on his hopes for the 2015 Dakar Rally win, as he is now 67th overall, over 2 hours and 25 minutes off the lead.
Team HRC’s Paulo Gonçalves enjoyed second consecutive Stage runner-up finish today, which has allowed him to solidify his second-place status in the overall Dakar Rally standings even though he lost 6 minutes to Barreda in Stage 2.
“Today was a really, really long and hard stage,” Goncalves said. “It was more than 500 kiloneters but with really difficult tracks, a lot of rocks and a last 45 km that was amazing. There was some super grass and a section with sand. With this temperature it was really, really hard, but I’m happy to be here. In the middle of the stage I lost a little bit of time trying to find a way point. I lost the others and for the last 200 km I was on my own, but I’m happy for me, for HRC and especially for Joan, because he rode a really, really, really, really smart race today. He just started pushing after 350 km, so congratulations to Joan. I thought we were very brave today because it was a really difficult day. This was a really typical Dakar stage; it wasn’t a normal Dakar stage, but one with a high amount of difficulty”.
Red Bull KTM’s Ruben Faria rebounded nicely today after a mediocre finish in Stage 1. Faria posted a third-place finish in Stage Two, 9 minutes behind Goncalves but 4 seconds ahead of teammate Jordi Viladoms by four seconds.
Dakar Rally rookies continued to impress today as well, as ISDE veteran Toby Price and motocross racer Matthias Walkner finished fifth and sixth respectively in today’s stage.
2015 Dakar Rally
Stage 2
Villa Carlos Paz-San Juan, Argentina
Results: January 5, 2015
1. Joan Barreda (ESP)-Hon/5 hours, 46 minutes, 6 seconds
2. Paulo Goncalves (PRT)-Hon/+00:06:13
3. Ruben Faria (PRT)-KTM/+00:09:16
4. Jordi Villadoms (ESP)-KTM/+00:09:20
5. Toby Price (AUS)-KTM/+00:09:42
6. Matthias Walkner (AUT)-KTM/+00:11:25
7. Helder Rodrigues (PRT)-Hon/+00:11:35
8. Marc Coma (ESP)-KTM/+00:12:32
9. Jermias Israel (CHL)-Hon/+00:15:49
10. Juan Pedrero (ESP)-Yam/+00:16:45
2015 Dakar Rally Standings (After 2 of 13 stages)
1. Joan Barreda (ESP)-Hon/7 hours, 6 minutes, 44 seconds
2. Paulo Goncalves (PRT)-Hon/+00:04:37
3. Ruben Faria (PRT)-KTM/+00:10:37
4. Jordi Villadoms (ESP)-KTM/+00:11:24
5. Toby Price (AUS)-KTM/+00:11:32
6. Marc Coma (ESP)-KTM/+00:12:03
7. Matthias Walkner (AUT)-KTM/+00:12:26
8. Helder Rodrgiues (PRT)-Hon/+00:13:26
9. Jermias Israel (CHL)-Hon/00:16:24
10. Juan Pedrero (ESP)-Yam/+00:19:34
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