Bikes news from stage 9

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DAKAR 2012 - Argentina/Chile - Stage 9  January 10th, 2012


15:07 - bike 023 - Barreda Bort rounds off the day's podium

The young Spaniard riding a Husqvarna bike has once again put in one of the day's best performances by finishing third in the special behind the official KTM bikes.


He finished 8'28” behind the day's winner. In fourth place, Portuguese rider Helder Rodrigues displayed his consistency just like his countryman Paulo Goncalves, finishing 11'44” and 15'12” behind respectively.


Sixth place goes to Norwegian Pal Anders Ullevalseter, 15'43” behind. In the general standings behind the leading pair, Helder Rodrigues trails by 59'19” whilst Paulo Goncalves is 1:25'57” behind.


David Casteu is losing his foothold in the Top 10: he is still stopped on the special stage at present, with serious engine problems.



15:03 - bike 014 - Casteu stops!

David Casteu has been at a standstill for almost 20 minutes after 516 km of the special. The French rider has an unknown technical problem which he is trying to identify and repair by his own means.


14:31 - bike 002 - Despres finishes ahead of Coma!

3'54” separate the two KTM riders at the finishing line of the special, with Cyril Despres ahead of Marc Coma, which means the Frenchman returns to the top of the general standings with a lead of 2'28” over the Spaniard.



14:06 - bike 007 - The state of play behind Helder at CP5

In the wake of the fourth rider who passed through CP5 earlier, Portugal's Helder Rodrigues, his countryman Paulo Goncalves, clocked in at 10'17” behind the provisional leader Cyril Despres.


Spaniard Gerard Farres Guell is sixth, 11'43” behind, with a short lead of only 12 seconds over Norwegian Ullevalseter. Slovak rider Stefan Svitko is eighth, 12'33” behind, but leads Dutchman Frans Verhoeven, who trails Despres by 13'27”. Afterwards, Jordi Viladoms is in tenth, 14'39” behind and Frenchman David Casteu is eleventh, 15'05” behind.



13:43 - bike 002 - Despres still leads at CP5

Frenchman Cyril Despres is keeping up the pressure on the general standings in this special. He still leads his team-mate Marc Coma, by 3'26”. Joan Barreda Bort is again in impressive form in third place, 3'03” behind Despres, ahead of Portugal's Helder Rodrigues, 9'51” behind the day's leader.




13:23 - bike Start of zone 2

Marc Coma has started the last part of the day's special. The bikes have approximately 90 more kilometres to tackle against the clock.



12:18 - bike Behind Helder at the zone 1 finish...

In fifth place, Portugal's Paulo Goncalves trails Cyril Despres by 9'54”, Gerard Farres Guell is sixth, 11'15” behind. Pal Anders Ullevalseter is 11'40” behind, Stefan Svitko is 12'15” behind and Jordi Viladoms is 14'21” behind. David Casteu rounds off the Top 10, trailing by 14'42”.



11:46 - bike Despres leads Coma at zone 1 finish

The advantage goes to the Frenchman on completion of the day's first time section: Cyril Despres finishes 3'30” ahead of Marc Coma and takes back control of the bike general standings.


Joan Barreda Bort confirms his third place 4'54” behind the first KTM rider. Helder Rodrigues is fourth, trailing by 9'33”. Now they will have to tackle a link stage of a little less than 120 kilometres before the start of the second timed zone.



11:22 - bike Goncalves fifth at CP4

Eleventh to start this morning, Portuguese rider Paulo Goncalves has been constantly advancing and has moved into fifth place at CP4, 7'38” behind Cyril Despres. 25 seconds behind his countryman Helder Rodrigues, he only leads Stefan Svitko by 24 seconds.


11:09 - bike Despres leads at CP4, but Coma fights back!

A little more than 50 kilometres before the finish of the first timed section this Tuesday, Cyril Despres still leads the pack of bikers, with a time of 3:11'12”, but at CP4, his team-mate Marc Coma has grabbed second place, trailing by 3'27”. Joan Barreda Bort in third place is 4'13” behind the day's leader.


Fourth-placed Helder Rodrigues already trails by 7'13”, whilst Stefan Vitko in fifth is 8'02” behind. Sixth-placed Anders Ullevalseter is 31” behind the Slovak, then comes David Casteu, 11'27” behind... Ruben Faria, who met with a mishap at the beginning of the day, has again lost a lot of time: a total of 18'35” on the stage leader.


10:19 - bike Who's after the Top 5 at CP3?

Following the leaders Despres, Barreda Bort, Coma, Svitko and Rodrigues, Paulo Gocalves has achieved the sixth best time at CP3, 7'17” behind the day's leader. Pal Anders Ullevalseter (who until then was in sixth place) is a further 1'19” behind in seventh.


Gerard Farres Guell is eighth, 9” behind Ullevalseter. Ninth is Frans Verhoeven, 12” behind the Spaniard and Jordi Viladoms is tenth, 1'41” behind the Dutchman.



10:10 - bike 002 - Despres opens the gap at CP3

The Frenchman, who took the lead in the stage from the start, has confirmed his superiority after approximately 230 kilometres with a total time of 2:25'33”, 3'31” ahead of his closest pursuer, Spaniard Joan Barreda Bort. In current third place, Marc Coma trails by 3'55”.


And Stefan Vitko in fourth place is 5'29” behind. Vitko leads Portugal's Helder Rodrigues by 1'01”, who in turn leads Pal Anders Ullevalseter by 1'36”.



09:28 - bike 015 - Verhoeven slips back at CP2

On reaching CP2, Dutchman Frans Verhoeven (second at CP1) has slipped back in the provisional standings: he has only accomplished the ninth best time, 4'08” behind leader Cyril Despres.



09:07 - bike First riders reach CP2

The first riders have reached CP2, one third of a way through the special stage. Cyril Despres is leading proceedings, with a total time of 1:27'30”, 37” ahead of Joan Barreda Bort, and 1'12” in front of Marc Coma, 2'15” ahead of Helder Rodrigues, 2'15” in front of Pal Anders Ullevalseter and 2'51” ahead of Stefan Svitko.

However, before declaring this racing order definitive, it would be a good idea to wait for the time of Frans Verhoeven, who was very quick at CP1.




07:51 - bike Despres quickest at CP1, Faria far behind...

The first trend that has emerged, though all is relative since CP1 is situated at only 12 kilometres from the start of the special stage, is that Cyril Despres provisionally leads with a time of 7'26” and leads of 5” over Joan Barreda Bort, 6” over Helder Rodrigues, 7” over Marc Coma, 18” over Svitko and 22” over Ullevalseter.


There has been an early mishap for Ruben Faria, however, who had to stop 1.7 km after the start and trails the current leader by 9'03”.



07:47 - bike  The bikes open the special stage

The general standings leader in the bike category and also winner of yesterday's stage has kicked off proceedings for the first special this Tuesday. In his wake, Marc Coma will be followed by Pal Anders Ullevalseter, Ruben Faria and Helder Rodrigues. A total of 120 bikers were authorised to take starter's orders this morning.


Let's not forget that the gap in the general standings between the leading pair, Coma and Despres is only 1'26” and that the battle is very open behind the two official KTM machines.




18:36 Antofagasta-Iquique: racing on the Ring of Fire

Marc Coma seizing the lead in the motorcycle classification without getting a decisive gap on his teammate Cyril Despres... The hierarchy in the car category, slowly changing while suspense runs high... A battle of titans between Iveco, Tatra and Kamaz...


And the ambitious Argentineans producing a show in the quad caravan... Without a shadow of a doubt, there is still much to be written about the 2012 Dakar. The next few days will be rich in stories of men and races. Tuesday's stage has a very short (9 km) liaison as an appetiser before a 556-kilometre-long selective sector, which will be divided into two parts separated by a neutralised section. This is the menu of the ninth stage of the 2012 Dakar, with different characteristics and backgrounds.


The first part of the stage is quite fast, with some areas of fesh-fesh, a type of fine dust resembling flour. The second special will test the navigational skills of motorcyclists and co-pilots alike, who will have to find their way with very few landmarks to help them, while accurately determining the position of the mandatory waypoints.


Their reward for this exercise in concentration will be a plunge to the shores of the Pacific down the great descent of Iqique, which already featured in the 2010 Dakar.




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