Jean Turner | January 7, 2016
In a reversal of fortunes in today’s Dakar Rally Stage 5, the KTM riders, as promised, came on strong and dominated the top spots. Toby Price came through with flying colors in the second half of the marathon stage, as did his Red Bull KTM Factory teammates Antoine Meo and Matthias Walkner, with Stefan Svitko also piloting his KTM into the top three. Yet once again, there were penalties dealt out after provisional results were posted – this time Meo was saddled with a five-minute penalty that dropped him from second to eighth in the stage.
KTM riders still dominated the top spots, with Svitko in second and Walkner third in the stage ahead of HRC’s Joan Barreda and Rockstar Husqvarna’s Pablo Quintanilla who rounded out the top-five, respectively. Riders were also treated to some difficult navigation in Stage 5—until today navigation has been minimal. Tight terrain and tricky navigation in the latter section of the special gave riders a solid challenge.
HRC’s frontrunner Paulo Goncalves had a tough day, struggling with altitude sickness, and despite his 12th place finish on the day and giving up nearly nine minutes, he holds the overall lead. Goncalves’ subpar finish along with a tough day for Kevin Benivides has effectively evened up the field, which was only beginning to spread out. Svitko advanced to second place in overall ranking with Price only seconds behind him in third.
Price had a spectacular day in the long special, and reported having no problems with the altitude. (Riders climbed to staggering heights of over 15,000 feet today.) The Aussie is thrilled to survive the marathon stage and come away with a significant stage win.
“This marathon stage was definitely difficult,” Price said. “Today was a little bit tricky with the navigation. I had to stay on top of the game. I made a couple of little errors in the end there, because I was a little too worried to take my eyes off the road. It was a pretty crazy track. It was just like big open roads, so on most of it you could get on the gas and go pretty good, but then on probably the last 30 or 40 km it was pretty hard navigation and I was just trying to stay on top of things. We just tried to push when we could and try to hold back when we had to, but we’ve come away with a good result, so it is a good day. All in all, we’re stoked. I didn’t expect to be that far ahead for the day.”
Goncalves agrees that the marathon stage was very trying, not just due to the lack of technical support and the high altitude, which left him with a headache, but the sheer mileage they’ve raced in the last two days. “Yesterday and today is around 1700 km in all, with 800 km per stage. With the high altitude it’s difficult and that’s where it can make the difference between a few riders.”
While the beginning and the end of the special had complex navigation, the transfer section itself was also tough on the competitors. “Today we woke up and 3:00 a.m. and we first had a big tough liaison,” described Rockstar Husqvarna’s Ruben Faria. “I didn’t have the speed today. I didn’t have the feeling. But I’m happy to arrive here in Uyuni. The race is not finished and I hope I can be fast over the rest.”
Faria finished 11th in Stage 5 and sits eighth in overall standings just ahead of his Husky teammate, Pablo Quintanilla.
According to several HRC riders, there were issues with navigation toward the end of Stage 5 that they are hoping the ASO will address. “We had a lot of navigation problems with a cable that wasn’t shown and some things that didn’t seem to coincide with the road book,” said Benavides, who lost over 11 minutes today, taking him from second in the standings to sixth. “I hope that the ASO makes a note of this because we were lost for quite some time.”
Joan Barreda agreed, commenting that “there was a problem with the road book. I hope they clear up these points. It didn’t go badly because we are still in the running to win the race.”
American rider Ricky Brabec had a challenging day, as well, especially after damaging his Honda in a crash. Despite the hang-up, Brabec got to the finish in a respectable 23rd place and remains steady in the overall.
“I was very confident halfway through the stage and I was pickup up the speed a bit,” said Brabec. “Eventually the rear tank was empty and the front tanks were still full so the weight distribution was hard to ride with and I came into a curve a little bit too hot. I just laid the bike over and slid out. When that happened I smashed the exhaust pipe so that robbed me of a lot of power. With the crash and the fast roads and me only going at 135 km/h (84 mph) I lost a bit of time but I’m still here safely and the bike is still running and there is a long way to go.”
Alexander Smith is also continuing to clock consistent times, and after surviving a “horrible day” in Stage 4, Smith reported a much better day in Dakar Rally Stage 5.
“Today was a mix of everything,” Smith said. “Some very fast (100 mph) roads, rocky sand washes and some rough winding roads. I don’t like the fast roads but the rough winding roads and rocky sand washes suite my riding style well and I can pass a lot of riders. I moved up 12 places today to 51st. I’ll just keep chipping away at this until we reach Rosario.
“Tomorrow is the longest special stage of the rally at 575 km (357 miles). I think I will do well with the long stage.”
Tomorrow riders will face the longest special of the Dakar rally at 337 miles (542 km) for a total distance of 450 miles (723 km), which will take place at sky-scraping altitudes of 11,400 to 13,800 feet (3500 – 4200m).
Dakar Rally Stage 5 Results:
- Toby Price (KTM) 4:03:44
- Stefan Svitko (KTM) +2:33
- Matthias Walkner (KTM) 2:40
- Joan Barreda (Hon) +5:57
- Pablo Quintanilla (Hus) +6:51
- Ivan Jakes (KTM) +7:19
- Helder Rodrigues (Yam) +7:20
- Antoine Meo (KTM) +7:21
- Juan Pedrero (Shr) +7:36
- Alain Duclos (Shr) +8:34
- Paulo Goncalves (Hon) +8:56
- Laia Sanz (KTM) +13:37
- Ricky Brabec (Hon) +14:34
- Ian Blythe (KTM) +18:16
- Alexander Smith (Hus) +35:13
- Scott Bright (KTM) +46:27
- C.R. Gittere (Hus) + 1:11:37
Overall Standings After Dakar Rally Stage 5:
- Paulo Goncalves (Hon) 14:30:07
- Stefan Svitko (KTM) +1:45
- Toby Price (KTM) +1:47
- Joan Barreda (Hon) +2:27
- Matthias Walkner (KTM) +2:57
- Kevin Benavides (Hon) +6:46
- Ruben Faria (Hus) +8:13
- Pablo Quintanilla (Hus) +8:30
- Antoine Meo (KTM) +11:49
- Alain Duclos (Shr) +13:39
- Ricky Brabec (Hon) +26:42
- Laia Sanz (KTM) +26:43
- Ian Blythe (KTM) +1:12:34
- Alexander Smith (Hus) +2:21:06
- Scott Bright (KTM) +2:42:43
- C.R. Gittere (Hus) +3:47:22