january 19, 2024 - Honda Racing
Brabec holds onto the overall lead as the final day approaches
Today’s stage from AlUla to Yanbu, the final destination on this year’s Dakar required an enormous amount of focus from the exhausted riders in order to complete the 420 km stage as fast gravel tracks, stony plateaus and broken dunes were a mixture that could derail anyone at the last moment.
Ricky Brabec planned to go out on the attack so that he could relax going into tomorrow’s finale and although his main rival Ross Branch was the fastest at the end of stage eleven, the 2020 Dakar winner kept his head down to keep himself firmly at the top of the overall standings.
Leading out today, Brabec slowed in the last 100 km of the special so that teammate Adrien Van Beveren could catch up and take a share of the bonuses to help his own podium bid. Although an honourable thing to do, the American profited from over five minutes in bonuses which moved him up from fourth to second on the stage with just over half a minute the final difference to Branch on the timesheet.
With the gap exceeding ten minutes to Branch overall, bar any issues the 32 year old American is on course for his second Dakar victory tomorrow.
Adrien Van Beveren has spent this week chipping away at Branch for that second spot on the podium and at the end of play yesterday had got it down to just a minute.
The Frenchman has opened the way for over 1137 km during this year’s event, 619 km of it on his own, so quite understandably was in no rush to catch up to Brabec and Cornejo when he left the line this morning in third. Although he also had planned to attack today, he ended up with a few surprises including a fall from a near miss with a camel which activated his airbag.
His third place finish today has unfortunately increased the gap by four minutes to the Botswanan who will have the task of opening tomorrow. This could though potentially give Van Beveren an advantage to leapfrog him heading into the final kilometres.
Despite not feeling 100% Nacho Cornejo put in a super effort on stage ten when he finished just two seconds behind Brabec and although he caught up to his teammate early on today, 115 km into the special he came to a standstill with a fuel pump issue. He managed to rectify it but lost over twenty-five minutes and sadly his chance to fight for the final spot on the podium in what was a cruel blow to the Chilean’s impressive Dakar adventure this year.
Pablo Quintanilla had a fairly steady stage, taking the lead early on but ultimately just made it into the top ten over seventeen minutes down on the stage winner.
The penultimate day of the Dakar Rally is done with the top step beckoning tomorrow for one rider. A short 175 km stage close to the crystal blue waters of the Red Sea will decide who receives the Bedouin trophy with a race to the finish on a rocky desert loop around Yanbu.
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