Paul Carruthers | January 10, 2007
Isidre Esteve took his first stage win of this year’s Dakar Rally, winning the stage from Quarzazate to Tan Tan on his Gauloises KTM.
Esteve gained a minute and 54 seconds on Marc Coma, the Repsol KTM rider content to ride with Esteve during today’s stage and maintaining his overall lead in the rally by almost 10 minutes on Esteve. Third place today went to Esteve’s team leader, Cyril Despres. The Frenchman’s effort today moved him past Red Bull KTM’s Chris Blais and into fourth in the overall standings.
Blais, meanwhile, ended up fifth in today’s stage and slipped to fifth in the overall standings, though he is just a few seconds behind Despres overall.
American Casey McCoy finished 43rd in today’s stage and is 34th overall. Fellow Americans Steve Laroza and Chris Jones are 127th and 134th overall, respectively after the first five stages of the rally.
Paul Carruthers | Editor
Paul Carruthers took over as the editor of Cycle News in 1993 after serving as associate editor since starting his career at the publication in 1985. Carruthers has covered every facet of the sport in his near-28-year tenure at America's Daily Motorcycle News Source.
