Dakar Day Five – Chilecito to Fiambala
Stage Results
1. Cyril Despres (FRA) KTM, 2:28:33 hrs
2. Marc Coma (SPA) KTM, 1:41 min behind
3. Joan Barreda (SPA) Husqvarna, 12:42
4. Stefan Svitko (SVK) KTM, 13:55
5. Jordi Viladoms (SPA) KTM, 14:17
Overall standings
1. Despres, 14:19:00 hrs
2. Coma, 9:51 min behind
3. Helder Rodrigues (POR) Yamaha, 47:56
4. Francisco Lopez (CHI) Aprilia, 49:00
5. Paulo Goncalves (POR) Husqvarna, 54:47
– MRW KTM Report
The MRW rider had a good performance in the stage while opening track and finished second behind Despres, the overall leader. His team mate Joan Pedrero is still eighth after finishing thirteenth today.
After winning the stage yesterday, Marc Coma was the first on track for the 186 timed kilometres of today, which he completed with the second fastest time, 1 minute and 41 seconds behind French Cyril Despres, who is leading the overall standings with an advantage of 9 minutes and 51 seconds over the MRW rider. His team mate, Joan Pedrero, was today thirteenth and keeps the eighth place overall.
Riding at a level much higher than the rest, the duel between Cyril Despres and Marc Coma required again the best performance to both riders, who have one two stages each after five days of rally. Coma, who yesterday recovered 2 minutes and 2 seconds, started first in a stage that was cut by 79 kilometres in its final part due to the heavy rains of the last few days. Opening the track, the MRW rider saw how the French was able to recover 1 minute and 41 seconds.
The two three times winners pushed so hard that the third classified rider is already more than 45 minutes behind. The third is in a group of 7 riders that are having a hard-fought battle, only separated by 15 minutes, where there is also Joan Pedrero. In a stage once again extremely tough, the MRW rider had some minor navigation problems in the first kilometres and a scare at the end of the stage, which forced him to slow the pace, crossing the finish line with the thirteenth fastest time. Nevertheless, Pedrero keeps the eighth place, only 6 seconds behind the seventh.
The sixth stage of this 2012 Dakar will take the participants tomorrow to the second country hosting the race, Chile. From Fiambalá to Copiapó, they will have to do a total of 641 kilometres, divided in a 394 kilometre link and a 247-kilometre stage. The MRW will have to face at night the long climb to Paso de San Francisco —4.700 metres height— where they will cross the frontier.
Marc Coma
“The difficulty of the rally was extreme up to now. With the rains of the last few days, the stage had to be cut at kilometre 186, when it was meant to be of 265. That made the stage easier and it was not the mythical Fiambalá. Truth is that if the race is easier it will be worse for me. I need a complicated and tough race, where things happen, in order to have an opportunity to recover time. At the beginning of the stage I tried to push to prevent Despres from catching me too easily, but having to open the track on dunes it is very difficult to escape and in the end I saw he was nearly at my wheel. The I decided to set a good pace, but without taking any risks. The problem is that the rest of rivals are very far away and I would prefer that there were people that entered the game and alter the starting order, but at the moment that is not happening. There is still a long way to go and I am confident we will have an opportunity to recover time. If we don’t have it, we will do our best to recover it by speed. What is clear is that we will not stop trying”.
Joan Pedrero
“It was a difficult stage, where we had to do a lot of navigation. I got lost at kilometre 25 and then at CP1. Truth is that I found this stage a bit dangerous and at kilometre 160 I had a scare. It was the first real scare of this Dakar, so I decided to reduce the pace a bit, because I was frightened. I preferred to secure the stage and I am happy because we arrived in Fiambalá, a stage which is always difficult, and we are at the bivouac after completing another day”.
– Husqvarna Report
Team result keeps improving
Overnight rain before the start of stage five gave the organisers extra work. Some areas in the second part of the special test were flooded and made the course dangerous. The special had to be shortened to 186 kilometres. Not all went perfect today for the Husqvarna Rallye Team by Speedbrain, but altogether the German-Italian squad had a decent Thursday, with Paulo Goncalves improving to fifth in the standings and Joan Barreda earning the team´s third podium.
The stage itself was tricky, as Goncalves found out at the beginning of the special test. The Portuguese crashed at a section where a new road is being built. The course was not well marked with deep ditches.
Goncalves crashed into one of them and was lucky not to injure himself. His bike was okay also. Fellow competitor Frans Verhoeven was less lucky and damaged his machine. The following riders were able to take advantage because they now got warned. Paulo Goncalves: “I was lucky not to get hurt. Thanks God I was able to continue.”
He later had to search for Checkpoint 2 like other riders. Goncalves still managed to finish the day in tenth position and improve in the standings. Teammate Joan Barreda was one of many riders who struggled with the navigation. The young Spaniard rode error-free almost all day. He only had some trouble at a checkpoint after taking the wrong way. Barreda had to lift his bike over a fence with difficulty. He still took his second podium of the rally.
Brasil´s Zé Hélio enjoyed another solid stage. He only had to deal with early dust, following those who started before him. Zé Hélio improved to 16th in the ranks. Jose Manuel Pellicer had one minor crash, and finished the day around the top twenty.
The coming night asks for a spectacular Andes crossing. The riders will climb up to 4,700 metres altitude and are certain to face temperatures below the freezing point. Right now it´s unusually cold in the region and there might even be snow. A contrast awaits the field once in Chile, namely the Atacama desert. First the ground will be hard, then sandy through the dunes of Copiapó. Tomorrow´s special test is 247 kilometres long.