Lopez surged to take the stage win and moves up to second place overall.
Heartbreaking for some and uplifting for others, riders were greeted this morning with news of revised finishes from yesterday’s Stage 11. Race officials awarded time bonuses to riders who were caught by poorly marked navigation. The resulting changes stole the stage victory from
BMW’s Frans Verhoeven and bumped Marc Coma and David Fretigne into the top two positions, respectively. It also shook up the title chase by forcing Francisco Lopez Contardo and Pal Anders Ullevalseter into a dead tie for second place overall.
Lopez, with an extra boost of confidence brought on by the scoring windfall last night, whittled away at Cyril Despres overall lead and is now just over an hour behind the multi-time French champion. “Chaleco” Lopez knocked off over 17 minutes in Stage 12 by topping the competitors on his
Aprilia motorcycle. The win marked the third for Chaleco this year as the Chilean has found increasing success with the South American version of
Dakar. Riders officially left Chile yesterday and are back in Argentina now for the remainder of the raid.
Despite the navigation error in stage 11, Coma was awarded the stage win after officials added time bonuses to those who got lost.
With light at the end of the tunnel, riders were faced with the longest stage of the event at 495 miles. Nearly 300 were timed as riders were faces with varying types of terrain. Lopez and Ullevalseter squared off to see who would break the tie, and it looked like it could go either way. Chaleco passed through Check Point 1 with a 23-second lead on the Norwegian, but just an hour later, Ullevalseter had put his
KTM 1:04 ahead of the Aprilia. That gap would grow by another 30 seconds by the halfway point, but soon the course found its way into sandy terrain that favored the smaller 450 machine. With 40 miles to go, Ullevalseter was facing a big push from Lopes and
Yamaha’s David Fretigne. Both would eventually surpass the Norwegian with Lopes claiming victory, Fretigne second and Ullevalseter hanging on for third.
Yesterday’s benefactor of the time bonus, Coma, landed in fourth with an overall time of 3:51:42 – over three minutes behind the leader. Despres finished way down in eighth, but continues to enjoy a comfortable cushion in the overall standings. American Jonah Street took the bad news this morning of dropping from second to fourth in yesterday’s standings, and soldiered through to 10th place today. He resides in seventh overall.
Rider Quotes:
Pal Anders Ullevalseter continues to finish consistently and slowly breaks down Despres' lead while battling with Lopez for second place overall.
“It was a wonderful stage and very hot at the end, a technical and tough special. I handled the bike well. It was a route that suited my machine, but it was difficult. For one of the last few stages of the Dakar, it was one of the toughest.”
David Frétigné: (FRA – Yam) 2nd, 5th OA
“I really enjoyed this morning. There were quite a lot of very quick tracks, with some dry river beds and a bit of navigation. Then, on the second section of the route I saw that I wasn’t losing too much distance on Marc Coma. I always had his helmet in my sights, so I tried to keep up with his pace and gave it my all. In the end, I think I put in a really good time.”
Marc Coma: (ESP – KTM) 4th, 16th OA
“The first part of the special was very different from the second section which required more riding skill. It was quite tough. I had a small problem with the bike, the same as in Fiambala, because of the heat. The engine suffered a lot due to the high temperature, so I dropped my pace a little in the second part. But it was a fairly nice special and there was an incredible amount of people.”
2010 Dakar Rally Stage 12 Results:
2010 Dakar Stage 12 Map
1. LOPEZ CONTARDO (CHL) APRILIA 03:48:34
2. FRETIGNE (FRA) YAMAHA 03:49:14 00:00:40
3. ULLEVALSETER (NOR) KTM 03:49:47 00:01:13
4. COMA (ESP) KTM 03:51:42 00:03:08
5. RODRIGUES (PRT) YAMAHA 03:55:33 00:06:59
6. PRZYGONSKI (POL) KTM 03:59:39 00:11:05
7. DUCLOS (FRA) KTM 04:04:32 00:15:58
8. DESPRES (FRA) KTM 04:05:46 00:17:12
9. PEDRERO GARCIA (ESP) KTM 04:06:37 00:18:03
10. STREET (USA) KTM 04:07:14 00:18:40
2010 Dakar Rally Overall Standings:
1. DESPRES (FRA) KTM 46:10:56
2. LOPEZ CONTARDO (CHL) APRILIA 47:14:38 01:03:42
3. ULLEVALSETER (NOR) KTM 47:15:51 01:04:55
4. RODRIGUES (PRT) YAMAHA 47:24:12 01:13:16
5. FRETIGNE (FRA) YAMAHA 47:51:08 01:40:12
6. DUCLOS (FRA) KTM 48:04:21 01:53:25
7. STREET (USA) KTM 48:48:19 02:37:23
8. PRZYGONSKI (POL) KTM 49:17:07 03:06:11
9. PAIN (FRA) YAMAHA 49:23:46 03:12:50
10. PEDRERO GARCIA (ESP) KTM 49:24:31 03:13:35
