Reigning champion, Cyril Despres, claimed victory today in Stage 8. He has reached the top-3 overall.
After crossing into Chile before the rest day, racing resumed in South America after a much needed break. Riders started early from Valparaiso with a 245 km highway liaison. A 294 km special test followed that was relatively tight and twisty with only a single check point. It was in those dusty miles that Red Bull KTM’s Cyril Despres collected his 18th career stage victory, and second of the 2009 Rally. Despite having a terrible start to the event, the Frenchman has made incredible progress of late and now sits in third overall. However, he’s still far behind overall leader Marc Coma who finished second today, only 1’49 behind Despres.
Chilean Francisco Lopez finished third, only 2’56 behind Despres and climbs to seventh overall. David Fretigne continues to hold tough on his Yamaha WR450F. Standing second overall with a 27-minute advantage over his countryman, Despres, Fretigne lost almost 16 minutes today with a sixth-place result. The break apparently disrupted the wave of momentum for Jonah Street who had a terrible day. The American dropped over 34 minutes on the lead pace finishing 29th and falling two places in the overall standings to fourth. He’s six minutes adrift of Despres.
Tomorrow’s ride is short on the whole, but riders will spend the majority of it during a 449 km special test that features large sand dunes of the Atacama Desert.
Check out the
Stage 8 video highlights.
Rider Quotes:
Cyril Despres (Fra – KTM) – 1st, 3rd OA
“Around fifteen kilometers from the finishing line, a donkey suddenly shot out from behind a bunch of cacti. I think it was a lucky escape, for both him and me. With Coma and Lopez we’ve been sharing the first places all season. Today, we set off quickly and all three of us attacked. The tracks were quite slippery and that’s why you need technical skill to be quick on them and strength too, to keep control of the bike. It’s been another good day for me. That’s the third one now. What was good for us, the three leading riders, is that we are fighting to gain back minutes on each other. We’re separated by quite a bit in the general standings, but it’s not all over yet. This is where your physical condition starts to matter.”
Coma surrendered less than two minutes, a small sum compared to his overall lead.
“It was a very difficult special stage, almost like ice-skating. The tracks were very slippery. I had to be careful on the bends, and avoid the slightest mistake with the brakes. But I didn’t have any problems at all today and that’s the main thing. Now we’ve got to tackle the Atacama. The hardest part of the race is about to start. There are still a good few days left. I’m going to carry on taking it day by day and trying to avoid problems.”
Alain Duclos (Fra - KTM) - 4th, 71st OA
“That was more like it. I liked the terrain today, my back felt better after the rest day and I was able to ride like normal. It looks like we are coming to a few difficult days so it is good that I will be starting close to Cyril and be there to help him if he should need me.”
Jordi Viladoms (Spa - KTM) - 5th, 5th OA
“There was so little grip that I was worried about spinning the tire too much and overheating the mousse so I made sure I accelerated as gently as possible out of the corners and tried to pull as high a gear as possible. At refueling I saw that in fact the mousse was doing ok and so after that I was able to pick up the pace a little.”
David Fretigne (Fra – Yamaha) – 6th, 2nd OA
“I thought I’d be ok at the start of the stage with my 450cc but the tracks were very slippery and I couldn’t manage to pick up speed again. The bike kept skidding and I even came off once. I wanted to attack after that, but I got lost after CP1. I must have done 3 or 4 kilometers too much. It was really difficult to recover after that but I didn’t want to take too many risks. If you want a podium place on the Dakar, there is no room for error. You need to be present every single day. I don’t have much experience in navigating and I’m aware of that. When there are small off-track sections like today, I often come unstuck. But for the moment, it’s not too serious.”
Stage 8 Results:
Stage 8 was the first to be held entirely in Chile. Tomorrow will feature the dunes of the Atacama Desert.
1. DESPRES (FRA) KTM 04:07:39
2. COMA (ESP) KTM 04:09:28
3. LOPEZ (CHL) KTM 04:10:35
4. DUCLOS (FRA) KTM 04:20:18
5. VILADOMS (ESP) KTM 04:20:51
6. FRETIGNE (FRA) YAMAHA 04:23:25
7. FARRES GUELL (ESP) KTM 04:23:55
8. CASTEU (FRA) KTM 04:25:18
9. PEDRERO GARCIA (ESP) KTM 04:26:48
10. ULLEVALSETER (NOR) KTM 04:27:51
Overall Standings:
1. COMA (ESP) KTM 30:33:15
2. FRETIGNE (FRA) YAMAHA 31:39:43
3. DESPRES (FRA) KTM 32:06:49
4. STREET (USA) KTM 32:12:22
5. ULLEVALSETER (NOR) KTM 32:15:39
6. VILADOMS (ESP) KTM 32:28:57
7. LOPEZ (CHL) KTM 32:33:53
8. RODRIGUES (PRT) KTM 32:37:12
9. CASTEU (FRA) KTM 32:40:11
10. VERHOEVEN (NLD) KTM 32:55:32
