Verhoeven saw his second stage win for the 2009 Dakar. His first stage victory was Stage 2.
Another stage of the 2009 Dakar has come to a close and Stage 9 proved to be anything but average. Cyril Despres and Marc Coma led the stage early this morning minus fourth-place rider in the overall standings, Jonah Street who was forced to withdraw due to a wrist injury. This stage proved to be fairly difficult to navigate for the leaders, allowing those who started further down to catch the front runners. After starting all the way back in 33rd place, Frans Verhoeven suprised everyone with some blazing fast times and taking his second stage win for the 2009 Dakar.
It was left to other riders to fill the headlines today with Verhoeven taking the top spot and David Frétigné following up in second. With Street exiting the rally, it has opened up a spot in the overall standings for Francisco Lopez to grab the fourth position. Lopez, the Chilean native, has been blazing up the leaderboard with top-five finishes the past few stages. He was fifth today, 8'40 behind Verhoeven.
While stage winners come and go, the overall leader is still the same. Coma still has a commanding 1:04'38 lead over second place Frétigné with no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
After Stage 8 yesterday, 151 bikes and quads offically finished the route. The total number of withdrawls has climbed to 171, after 16 crews didn't resume after the rest day. The 2009 Dakar is proving to be as difficult as ever, and I believe Chilean rider Lopez said it best, "Nothing goes as planned on a rally, even when you want to do the best you can."
Check out the
Stage 9 video highlights.
Navigation proved to be key in this round with many riders grouping together to make it though with only minor mistakes.
Riders will face one of the longest and most difficult routes of the rally with a loop that will take them though the world's driest deserts of Atacama. Riders are likely to face extreme temperatures during which reading the condition of the sand will prove to be very difficult. This stage will also be flirting with high elevations, peaking at 2400 m. This is looking to be a stage you will not want to miss.
Frans Verhoeven (Ndl – KTM) - 1st, 8th OA
“This morning, I set off 33rd because I struggled a bit yesterday after I broke my navigation tools. Today, it was a real special, there was a bit of everything. We really enjoyed it, especially me. I attacked well all day long and I’m happy because it all paid off. At the start it was difficult because the sun was rising, there was dust in the mountains and still a bit of fog. I didn’t take too many risks, but afterwards when I could see better, I really went for it.”
David Frétigné (Fra – Yamaha) - 2nd, 2nd OA
“It was a stage for navigating and very hard. 430 kilometers for a special stage is very long. There was a bit of everything in this stage, and no room for error. We kept moving from one valley to another. There were lots of off-track sections with dunes and stones. This morning I didn’t want to ride too quickly. I wanted to navigate well more than anything. But in the end, I was quite quick. I caught up with a lot of riders who had got lost. Since navigation is my weak point, it was no bad thing. I concentrated well after that and I did well to get through the tricky spots. It’s a good thing too, because near the end, a few kilometers from the finishing line, I arrived on a track where there were quite a few competitors. I started wondering why and lost my way a little because I lost concentration. I still managed to recover well, which shows that you always need a bit of luck. I got some and I finished well. Since the start, I’ve not been looking at how my rivals are racing. I’m racing according to my capabilities, to avoid getting lost on the wrong tracks or losing time by getting over-excited. I prefer controlling how I race, both in terms of riding and navigation. Frankly, I’m happy, because that plan worked well today in a stage with several surprises: I caught up with them, they left me trailing, etc. In the meantime, there were quick tracks where I let them past because they are quicker than me”.
The Atacama desert has proved to be more challanging than imagined, But it only gets harder from here.
Today was a typical day of rally-raid, the sort you might find in Africa, in fact it reminded me a lot of certain types of terrain in Morocco. Early on we came quite close to the sea and there were tracks everywhere - and it wasn't easy to find the right one! Me, Chalico (Lopez) and Cyril (Despres) rode much of the day together, occasionally joined by Frétigné. Overall I'd say it was a hard stage, made harder by tricky navigation. The good news is that my rear mousse performed perfectly.
Cyril Despres (Fra – KTM) - 4th, 3rd OA
I was hoping to take a bit of time off Frétigné today, but with the navigation quite tricky at times, it proved impossible. Opening the piste I was quite quickly joined by Chaleco (Lopez) and Marc (Coma), and despite my best efforts, was unable to shake them off. Still it was a magnificent special and I really enjoyed myself - a proper day of rally-raid. Congratulations to the organizers for providing us with so much entertainment.
Francisco Lopez (Chl – KTM) - 5th, 4th OA
“It wasn’t a simple day. The navigation we had to do was complicated. In fact, a lot happened to me today. Nothing goes as planned on a rally, even when you want to do the best you can. I had a problem with my map. It got wiped, which cost me 15 minutes. But that’s life. It wasn’t really my day”.
Alain Duclos (Fra - KTM) - 10th, 53rd OA
I went wrong at about kilometer 90 and lost about 12 minutes in the process. When I got back on the track I found myself in the company of Farres, Viladoms and Casteu all of whom I managed to overtake again to finish in the top-10 as planned. The scenery was absolutely stunning and I think the person who made the road book must have been similar impressed because some of the distances and designs weren't that precise.
Jordi Viladoms (Esp – KTM) - 11th, 5th OA
Up until refuelling I was doing ok. My pace was good so I backed off a little - maybe a bit too much. Contrary to the others I didn't enjoy the special that much and found it pretty hard going.
2009 Dakar Rally Stage 9 Map
1. VERHOEVEN (NLD) KTM 06:26:33
2. FRETIGNE (FRA) YAMAHA 06:29:42
3. COMA (ESP) KTM 06:31:32
4. DESPRES (FRA) KTM 06:32:36
5. LOPEZ (CHL) KTM 06:35:13
6. CASTEU (FRA) KTM 06:35:54
7. RODRIGUES (PRT) KTM 06:37:01
8. PROHENS (CHL) HONDA 06:40:20
9. GONCALVES (PRT) HONDA 06:42:28
10. DUCLOS (FRA) KTM 06:43:51
Overall Standings:
1. COMA (ESP) KTM 37:04:47
2. FRETIGNE (FRA) YAMAHA 38:09:25
3. DESPRES (FRA) KTM 38:39:25
4. LOPEZ (CHL) KTM 39:09:06
5. VILADOMS (ESP) KTM 39:13:44
6. RODRIGUES (PRT) KTM 39:14:13
7. CASTEU (FRA) KTM 39:16:05
8. VERHOEVEN (NLD) KTM 39:22:05
9. ULLEVALSETER (NOR) KTM 39:26:39
10. KNUIMAN (NLD) KTM 40:05:44
