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-- Dakar 2013, 3rd Stage: Pisco - Nazca - 327 km stage (204 miles) including 242 km of special test Results Stage Three Pisco to Nazca – total distance 343 km: 100 km liaison and 243 km special 1, Chaleco Lopez, Chile, KTM 2 hours 37.54 2, Paolo Goncalves, Portugal Husqvarna, 2:39.02 3, Cyril Despres, France, KTM, 2:42.02 4, Alessandro Botturi, Italy, Husqvarna 2:42.59 5, Jakub Przygonski, Poland, KTM 2:43.14 6, Daniel Gouet, Chile, Honda, 2:44.29 7, Gerard Farres Guell, Spain, Honda, 2:44.52 8, Frans Verhoeven, Netherlands, Yamaha 2:45.16 9, Olivier Pain, France, Yamaha 2:45.22 10, Javier Pizzolito, Argentina, Honda 2:45.33 Overall results after Stage Three 1, Despres, KTM 6 hours 15.03 2, Lopez, KTM 6:17.54 3, Ullevalseter, KTM 6:20.02 4, Pain, 6:21.06 5, David Casteu, France, Yamaha 6:21.11 6, Israel Esquerre, Chile, Honda 6:21.22 7, Verhoeven, KTM, 6:23.11 8, Jordi Villadoms, Spain, Husqvarna 6:24.11 9, Svitko, KTM, 6:24.43 10, Przygonski, KTM 6:24.48 --  The Aussies Rod Faggotter – Yam 20th 06:35:53 Todd Smith – Hon 24th 06:38.47 Matt Fish – Husq 31st 06:41:15 Ben Grabham – KTM 32nd 06:34:48 Warren Strang – Hon 33rd 06:48:38 Troy O’Connor – KTM 40th 07:02:06 Simon Pavey – Husq 56th 07:29:56 Paul Smith – Honda Quad 19th 08:47:54 -- KTM Report - Despres overall Dakar leader after Stage Three Red Bull KTM factory rider and reigning title-holder Cyril Despres on Monday assumed his natural habitat at the head of the overall standings in the 2013 Dakar Rally. Despres, who finished third in Stage Three, vaulted from fifth overall into the premiere place on Day Three of this marathon event. Despres now holds a 2 minute 51 second overall lead over Chaleco Lopez (KTM) while evergreen KTM rider Pal-Anders Ullevalseter of Norway in third place, four minutes 59 behind the leader. Lopez made a big charge from back in the field to win Stage Three ahead of Paolo Goncalves of Portugal while Despres was third. Jakub Przygonski of the KTM Factory B Team had a good day out finishing fifth in the stage to improve his overall position to tenth. Stage Three, which took riders over some of the most spectacular sections of the desert of southern Peru shook up the standing order and saw Stage Two winner and overall leader Joan Barreda Bort slip back to overall eighteenth. It also saw the two KTM Factory Team’s support riders, Ruben Faria and Joan Pedrero, pay the price for being amongst the first to start this morning. Ruben Faria is now eleventh overall and teammate Joan Pedrero is now twenty-third. South African Darryl Curtis of the KTM Factory B Team fared better and is now thirteenth overall and his teammate Riaan Van Niekerk is twenty-fifth. Kurt Caselli, the factory team’s rookie entrant riding for the injured Marc Coma was a very creditable nineteenth place overall after Stage Three. The highly experienced Despres, going for his fifth Dakar title continues to ride his skillful and tactical race and this paid off for him in Monday’s conditions. Riders had only a brief liaison before launching into the soft sand and unpredictable dunes that lived up to the organizers’ promise that the opening stages of this over 8000 km marathon would be very tough. Riders tackled steeper and more difficult dunes in the first half of the day before entering rolling terrain in the second half of the stage. Despres was happy to take over top spot on the overall list and said he had “a fairly good special”. “I think I made significant progress in the general classification today. I started in twelfth place but I soon caught up with the leaders and I was at the front of the race from km 190 onwards. Considering that I started 20 minutes after Barreda and Pedrero, I think I did quite well!” Lopez said Stage Three had been very different from the first two days ride. “I started from right back in the field and I went flat out right through the stage to try to catch Cyril. I focused on navigating and finding the waypoints, and everything went well. But tomorrow's stage will be different at the front of the race, so I'm taking things one day at a time.” Factory team manager Alex Doringer said he was satisfied with his riders. “We now have Cyril in the overall lead and also Kuba Przygonski did a great job and made up a lot of places today. It was a tough day of navigating and this cost Ruben (Faria) and Joan (Pedrero) some places. We are also very proud of Kurt Caselli and what he is doing in his first ever Dakar and Darryl Curtis on our B Team is doing a fantastic job. With all our riders in good shape and no technical problems we’re looking forward to another tough day tomorrow.” The KTM Factory riders are all on KTM 450 Rally machines. Stage Four takes riders from Nazca to Arequipa for a total distance of 343 km, 243 km of which is another difficult timed section. -- Husqvarna Report Husqvarna Rallye Team by Speedbrain notched up another noteworthy performance. Nazca, one of Peru’s most famous archaeological cities played host to today’s stage, where it was the turn of Paulo Goncalves to take the podium in second place just seconds behind winner Lopez. Paulo would have been in third overall place were it not for a fifteen minute penalty picked up for a first engine change. Alessandro Botturi put in a great performance too, taking fourth place in spite of a fall. Joan Barreda was less fortunate, breaking his rear wheel as he landed after a jump just forty kilometres into the special test. Until that moment Barreda on his TE449RR by Speedbrain had been in command of the race, but was forced to slow down considerably to be able to get through the special, losing over thirty minutes in doing so. After three stages, the top Husqvarna rider in the overall standings is the private Spanish rider Jordi Viladoms, a kind of ‘special customer’ of the Husqvarna Rallye Team by Speedbrain, who sits in eighth place in the overall table. Tomorrow the treacherous stage of Nazca Arequipa awaits with 718 km (449 miles) of which 289 km (180 miles) are special test. Paulo Goncalves: "I really pushed it today and am happy about the podium. It was a shame that I got stuck in a dune and lost about a minute trying to get going again. I wanted to win and came pretty close to it." Alessandro Botturi: "What a giant roll I did!!! A 100 km in I jumped badly over a dune and turned over. Luckily I was alright. Then I had to slow down due to the enormous amount of dust." Joan Barreda: "I was going really well until 40 km in, when I landed after a jump and broke the rear wheel. I was forced to stop to try and sort out the damage, but there was nothing I could do about it. So I had to carry on at a slower pace until the end of the special. A shame! But that’s the Dakar. Tomorrow is another day!" Team Manager, Wolfgang Fischer: "Today was the reverse of the situation for all our riders. Paulo and Alessandro did well, Joan and Matt had problems. It was a shame about Joan’s technical set-backs, he was really going flat out until then. Tomorrow will be a really hard stage. Joan and Matt start out from behind and will have the chance to make up ground." Third Stage Result: 40. Matt Fish (AUS, Husqvarna Rallye Team by Speedbrain) 29:52, 44. Joan Barreda (ESP, Husqvarna Rallye Team by Speedbrain) 33:02 Overall Standings After Three Stages: 18. Joan Barreda (ESP, Husqvarna Rallye Team by Speedbrain) 20:04, 31. Matt Fish (AUS, Husqvarna Rallye Team by Speedbrain) 26:12

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