Dakar Rally Day 5: KTM versus KTM

KTM’s dominance in the motorcycle section of the Dakar Rally continued yesterday with the fierce competition in the class now focussed between the Gauloises (second, third, fifth) and Repsol (first, fourth, sixth) sponsored KTM teams and a monumental battle between the teams’ lead riders, Cyril Despres (Gauloises KTM) and Marc Coma (Repsol KTM). Yesterday Despres carved 3 minutes and 41 seconds from Coma’s lead during an 800 km stage down the Adraa Valley in Southern Morocco, but Coma still leads the rally by one minute 25 seconds. KTMs fill 13 of the first 14 places on the leaderboard with one third of the rally distance covered, with only the two-wheel-drive Yamaha of David Fretigne (seventh) preventing a complete whitewash of the results.

Despres (Gauloises KTM) won the stage of more than 800 kilometres, almost all run in the Adraa Valley, a dry riverbed that crosses the southern Moroccan region.

Due to the different starting positions, Coma suffered in the special test with his previous advantage over Despres reduced to one minute and a half. The remainder of the race will probably be characterized by this kind of alternating “train game” between the leaders, thanks to the importance of navigation in the modern interpretation of what a Rally is about.

Marc Coma was very calm at the finish. “When I knew the characteristics of the special test”, he said, “I realised that nothing could change today. We all rode almost all the time together, only some time trying to force a little. My main goal was to reach the finish maintaining the leadership. This morning we started very early, at 4AM, and tomorrow we will leave Tan Tan at 1:00 AM. So it is important to preserve our energies. From tomorrow I’m sure that the race will show a completely different face. The tomorrow’s stage is a “classic” of the Dakar, and we used to run this special test at maximum speed, instead due to the new rules we will have to take care about speed”.

Jordi Arcarons, the team manager of the Repsol KTM team cautioned the riders in the press conference, saying,“you have to consider also two more things. In the recent past this stage was run without any navigation problem.”

“This year there is no way point to be reached directly, so you have to take care when finding the right track. Also the temperature is increasing, and this is one of the main phantoms to be watched”.

The remoteness and realities of racing in Africa hit home today, with persistent fog in the region of Tan Tan (the small town which was the destination of the rally today), meaning the aerial fleet which watches over the rally and supplies much of the logistics and transport for the accompanying journalists, could not fly. This meant no results for the press, no information and no satellite communications. “This is Africa, this is the Dakar”, said Etienne Lavigne, the race controller. Results of 350 km 5th stage Special:

1. Despres (Gauloises KTM), 03:47:40h 2. Coma (Repsol KTM), + 03:41 3. Esteve Pujol (Gauloises KTM), + 05:18 4. Faria (KTM), + 08:14 5. De Gavardo (Repsol KTM), + 08:21 6. Caldecott (Repsol KTM), + 10:54 7. Casteu (Gauloises KTM) + 11:03 8. Ullevalseter (KTM), + 11:06 9. Sala (Repsol KTM), + 11:41 10. Fretigne (YAMAHA), + 13:01 11. Katrinak (KTM), + 16:20 12. Blais (Red Bull USAKTM), + 24:17 13. De Azevedo (KTM), + 25:14 14. Gau (Gauloises KTM), + 30:07 15. Farres Geull (YAMAHA), + 31:38 16. Grider (Red Bull USAKTM), + 31:57 17. AgraCarrera (YAMAHA), + 35:52 18. Street (KTM), + 36:41 19. Czachor (YAMAHA), + 39:16 20. Marchini (KTM), + 44:40

Overall Results after fifth stage:

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