Esteve Extends Dakar Lead

Paul Carruthers | January 5, 2004

Isidre Esteve extended his overall lead in the Dakar Rally, the KTM man winning today’s stage over fellow Spaniard Joan Roma by 16 seconds.

Esteve’s win gives him a 22 second lead in the overall standings over Fabrizio Meoni, the Italian finishing third in today’s stage.

Meanwhile, last year’s winner Richard Sainct only managed an eighth-place finish in today’s stage, the Frenchman suffering with an arm injury from stage four. Sainct is now five minutes and 14 seconds behind Esteve in the overall standings.

Scot Harden had the best day of the Americans in the race, the Red Bull KTM rider ending up 16th today to jump ahead of his teammate Larry Roeseler in the overall standings. Harden is now 15th overall with Roeseler dropping to 23rd after finishing 25th today. The third member of the team, Paul Krause, was 28th today and sits 28th overall.

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.