The Englishman scores his first career Dakar Rally stage win aboard his factory Honda CRF450 Rally. Teammate Joan Barreda still holds the overall lead after Stage 2.
HRC Factory rider Sam Sunderland of Great Britain scored his first career Dakar Rally stage win on the run from San Luis to San Raafel in Argentina today. Sunderland rode comfortably during the 724-kilometer stage, which included a 359-kilometer special test that featured about 50 kilometers of sand dunes along with a mixture of terrain, including some technical and extremely high speed sections. Sunderland finished with a time of 3 hours, 42 minutes and 10 seconds.
“All in all for me it was a good stage,” Sunderland said. “I arrived at the finish in the top seven. They said I was first, so we’ll wait and see if anyone else comes in faster than that. I’ll be really happy if I take the stage. It will be the first one for me on the Dakar. It’s great. The bike was awesome. Without all the work that goes on behind the scenes this is nothing, as you know, so I’m really grateful for the opportunity from Honda and all my sponsors. Hopefully I can carry on in this direction and have a good overall finish.”
Stepping up to finish second today was Chile’s Francisco “Chaleco” Lopez of Chile, who finished with a time of 03:42:49 on his KTM.
“Today the first part was very, very speedy and the second part was very sandy with dunes,” Lopez said. “That was okay for my machine. The end was very technical, but I think it was a good day. For me it was good and I’m happy for the new team. My motorbike was the second best today, so I‘m very happy. The Dakar is very long. For me the finish in Valparaiso is very important, but today was okay.”
Sunderland’s HRC teammate Joan Barreda of Spain had another good day during Stage 2, posting a time of 03:44:10 that was good enough to keep him in the overall motorcycle lead despite some navigation difficulties.
“I had to ride to the finish with one eye on the road-book,” Barreda said. “I was in lucky in the last part. I did some really good navigation. It was unbelievable to go alone there in the dunes that were so difficult. When I reached the last 80 km it was just one track, so I knew the dangerous navigation was finished and I said to myself, ‘Okay, good job.’ After one corner without visibility, there were a lot of boulders, and I hit one. It’s possible that I broke something. The bike is not so badly broken at all, but part of the navigation system had a big impact on the boulder so it’s completely broken. So I had to ride to the finish with one eye on the road-book. I lost a little bit of time, but it’s an incredible job and I’m really happy.”
Ruben Faria of Portugal (03:46:17) and Alain Duclos of France (03:48:01) completed the top five for Stage 2, while pre-race favorites Marc Coma and Cyril Despres rather surprisingly finished down in the order today, although both finished in the top 10 and are in the top 10 overall.
After two stages, Barreda still holds the fastest overall time with a total of 6 hours, 9 minutes and 41 seconds. Lopez has moved into second place, 2 minutes and 3 seconds behind Barreda, with Sunderland another 30 seconds behind Lopez in third overall.
Stage 3 tomorrow leaves San Rafael and finishes in San Juan. The motorcycles will negotiate a 292-kilometer transfer section on and a 373-kilometer special test that is mostly mountainous as they head into the the Pre-Andes near the The Aconcagua Volcano, which at 22,837 feet is the highest mountain in the Americas. The motorcycle riders will climb as high as 14,000 feet during their special test.
Dakar Rally
Stage 2
San Luis-San Rafael, Argentina
Results: January 6, 2014
1. Sam Sunderland-Hon/03:42:10
2. Francesco Lopez-KTM/+00:00:39
3. Joan Barreda-Hon/+00:02:00
4. Ruben Faria-KTM/+00:04:07
5. Alain Duclos-She/+00:05:51
6. Ben Grabham-KTM/+00:07:15
7. David Casteu-KTM/+00:07:27
8. Paulo Goncalves-KTM/+00:07:45
9. Marc Coma-KTM/+00:08:23
10. Cyril Despres/+00:08:43
Dakar Rally Standings (After Stage 2 of 13)
1. Joan Barreda-Hon/06:09:41
2. Francsco Lopez-KTM/+00/02:03
3. Sam Sunderland-Hon/+00:02:33
4. Alain Duclos-She/+00:05:47
5. Marc Coma-KTM/+00:07:00
6. Ruben Faria-KTM/+00:07:18
7. Paulo Goncalves-KTM/+00:08:10
8. Cyril Despres-Yam/+00:08:23
9. Ben Grabham-KTM/+00:10:05
10. David Casteu-KTM/+00:10:59
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