Another sunrise on what will prove to be a wet and fast ride into Chile on the Dakar Rally.
Stage 7 marked the crossing of borders from Argentina to Chile and what better way to mark that occasion than with Chilean rider Francisco Lopez winning the stage, his career first on the Dakar. Due to the difficulties encountered on the last section of the dunes in the sixth stage, Dakar organizers decided to modify today's stage route to only 243.36 km from the original 419.31 km planned. Following this stage is the planned rest day in Valparaiso, Chile.
First place in the general standings was not really in play on this shortened stage with Marc Coma staying close to previous stage winner Cyril Despres despite the wet and muddy terrain. Coma expand his lead over second place Jonah Street, who wavered a bit on his route to Chile, arriving 15 minutes after Lopez and increasing his overall time behind the leader to 51'21. The past two stages have taken a toll on Street's overall standings, shrinking his gap with third-place rider David Frétigné, who is now only a little over a minute behind Street and fourth place overall.
Jordi Viladoms encountered tire issues during the stage causing him to drop in the overall standings to fifth place behind Pal Anders Ullevalseter of Poland and increasing the gap between third and fourth place overall. Lopez's first-place finish has allowed him to break though in to the top-10 in the overall standings, quickly advancing on his goal of a top-five finish in the rally.
Check out the
video highlights for Stage 7.
Looking forward to tomorrow:
Saturday will be a rest day and a video summary will be online tomorrow filling in those who are just joining the Dakar rally coverage. Racing resumes January 11th.
The Frenchman taking some time to get a bit of air off the dunes. It wouldn't be a rally with out some air!
I think the organizers were right to shorten this special stage because there were plenty of water holes and difficult mud. You have to know how to handle a big 200 kilo bike in the mud and it’s not easy, but we did okay. We’re discovering a new type of terrain, on leaving Argentina, and I wasn’t expecting that. After 140 km of nice sandy tracks with jumps, we landed on mud flats, dry tracks that were a bit like the Sahara. With the mud, it was fun. I’m starting to get the bit between my teeth: when I’m not thinking about my problems and when I don’t have any, straight away things are better. The cards were dealt during the first days and now we’re coming across the sort of stages that we are used to, where we can attack, which is the rule of the game in rally-raids. The problem is that when the cards were dealt, I didn’t get a good hand…
Marc Coma (Esp - KTM) - 2nd, 1st OA
The special was short but not so easy. The first part was fun to ride in the sand - very bumpy and quite physical. Then it got really muddy with water everywhere - not conditions particularly suited to rally bikes - I think the organisers were right to cut the length. Now we have the rest day and a chance to prepare ourselves for the second week of the race, which I think will be completely different to what we have had so far. We will have the dunes in the north of Chile and I think it is going to be very hard. If you look at the time sheets it looks quite good for me, but I think they only tell half the story.
Navigating the barren dunes has proved to be a significant challange for all the riders.
For the first 100 kilometers, it was superb, technical, full of little sandy rugged tracks. I loved it. I did lots of little jumps, but tried to avoid any nasty surprises. After that, the tracks were very quick, scattered with sections where there was a lot of water. It was really like endurance riding and it wasn’t easy to find the right way through, due to all the vegetation. It’s a shame that after 100 kilometers, I had problems with my rear hub. It overheated and the bike stopped. I understood what it was, so when I was able to get going again, I was a bit worried whether I would finish the special stage or not. It’s already happened to me once before, it completely blocked the bike up. At the start I was quick, but then when I was riding at 130 kmph, the others were speeding along at 170 kmph, so I lost time on them. That said, it was a good special stage. Tomorrow we can rest. With a start of a rally like this, it’s all I’m asking for.
Francisco Lopez (Chl - KTM) - 1st, 10th OA
I rode quickly today. There were a lot of dunes. It was very physical. The bikers will be aching tomorrow. After that, there were 120 very tough kilometers that required a very fast pace, before we hit the mud, which was quite destabilizing for riding the bike. I’m very happy, because the other day I did well but wasn’t able to make it count when it mattered. Now we are in Chile, so let’s see what will happen. I hope I can keep up with the pace. I really want to do well in my home country.
Jordi Viladoms (Esp – KTM) - 10th, 5th OA
I took a lot of care not to damage the rear tyre and never went over 145 kph - and in spite of all that, the mousse started to melt about 10 kilometres from the end. I just made it to the finish line - if it had been one kilometre further I think I would have had to stop before the end to put a tube in.
Alain Duclos (Fra - KTM) - 20th, nd OA
The first part of the special was like riding Le Touquet and the second part was fast but as I couldn't go over 140 kph it wasn't much fun. The good news is that my back is starting to feel better and after the rest day I should be in better shape to help Cyril.
The Stage 7 route has been shortened and the finishing line of the special stage has been moved to the initially planned CP1 making the route only 243.36km.
1. LOPEZ (CHL) KTM 02:36:09
2. COMA (ESP) KTM 02:40:06
3. DESPRES (FRA) KTM 02:41:30
4. FRETIGNE (FRA) YAMAHA 02:45:07
5. CASTEU (FRA) KTM 02:50:16
6. VERHOEVEN (NLD) KTM 02:50:51
7. ULLEVALSETER (NOR) KTM 02:50:54
8. STREET (USA) KTM 02:50:59
9. RODRIGUES FILHO (BRA) HONDA 02:54:17
10. VILADOMS (ESP) KTM 02:54:37
Overall Standings:
1. COMA (ESP) KTM 26:23:47
2. STREET (USA) KTM 27:15:09
3. FRETIGNE (FRA) YAMAHA 27:16:18
4. ULLEVALSETER (NOR) KTM 27:47:48
5. VILADOMS (ESP) KTM 27:48:06
6. DESPRES (FRA) KTM 27:59:10
7. RODRIGUES (PRT) KTM 28:05:59
8. VERHOEVEN (NLD) KTM 28:10:37
9. CASTEU (FRA) KTM 28:14:53
10. LOPEZ (CHL) KTM 28:23:18
