Yesterday, Honda’s top riders once again blew away the competition at Dakar, but with similar results to Stage 3.
Joan Barreda won the stage with blazing speed, but paid the price for that haste with another speeding penalty. As a repeat offender, Bam Bam ended up with a five-minute penalty, dropping him to fourth on the day and leaving him in third overall. At the end of the day, he almost seemed to express wonder that both he and his bike were holding it together, with no mechanical breakdowns or crashes so far.
Opinion is divided on Barreda’s speeding penalties; some people say he’s just up to his usual win-it-or-bin-it antics, and not paying attention (although Dakar vets say it’s practically impossible to miss the warning buzzer when you’re about to be penalized). Other people think he’s working on a devious plan to win as many stages as possible, but rack up penalties to push his starting position back each day, allowing him to focus on raw speed as he follows lead riders, instead of navigation. Any lost time could be made up with an impressive stage win towards the end.
If that’s true, there’s one problem: Too many speeding penalties, and he could be forced to withdraw, according to the rulebook.
As a result of the penalty, Barreda’s teammate Paulo Goncalves was the official winner of the stage. He’s holding down first place now, and he looks like he might stay there.
Rookie Kevin Benavides had his third-place finish boosted to second because of the penalty. Although the rally hasn’t required much navigation skill so far, Benavides impressed all with his ability to handle the road book yesterday. He managed well enough that Goncalves finished the day riding with him.
Ruben Faria took third on his Husky, and Antoine Meo put up another great result, finishing fifth, the highest-ranked KTM. Meo had to baby his bike along to save his tires as Stage 4 was the beginning of the first two-part marathon stage.
Laia Sanz ended up finishing quite far down the standings on the day, as she stopped for over a half hour to stick with an unconscious rider. She found Pela Renet down on the course today, and tried to contact organizers, but couldn’t. She ended up having to use her phone (something the riders aren’t supposed to have, due to its GPS chip — but the officials tend to ignore them) to call her team, who sent a helicopter.
Ironically, this isn’t the first time Sanz and Renet have met like this; she also had to call in assistance after finding him unconscious at the Morocco rally. Eventually, organizers gave Sanz back 35 minutes, which means she finished the day in 15th.
Sanz’s finishes haven’t been spectacular this year, although she’s certainly outperforming many of her male competitors. Her steady-as-she-goes approach will no doubt pay off in the coming week, though. Sanz is a winner at every level of racing, and in several different disciplines, and knows enough to hold her bike together for when it matters.
Adrien Van Beveren was 13th on his Yamaha. Although Yamaha traditionally has had at least one bike in the top 10 at Dakar, their bikes seem a bit more sluggish this year. Van Beveren is outperforming veteran teammate Helder Rodrigues, but both will have to improve significantly if they want to challenge for podium positioning. Both Yammie riders have been sick in the early days of the race, so they’ll probably pick up their efforts once they feel better.
Today, Stage 5, is the second part of the first marathon stage. Riders were not allowed outside help repairing their bikes last night, so expect mechanical failures to start showing up and thinning out the herd today. The route crosses into Bolivia, gains a lot of elevation, and adds much more off-piste riding and navigation, so things are about to get a lot tougher. Bikes have 314 km of connection stage, and 327 km of timed special to complete today.
Along with the fast guys (and girl) and the factory teams, a few more unique efforts show up at Dakar every year. Last year, we saw Anar Chinbaatar, who showed up from Mongolia and managed to finish what was essentially his first major motorcycle race — which is a better result than plenty of more famous riders. There have also been several riders who have attempted the race on made-in-China motorcycles in recent years.
This year’s oddball hero is Sylvain Espinasse. The French rider has passed on the 450 cc four-stroke that most of the competition is using, and showed up on a two-stroke Husqvarna TE125 that he set up for Dakar with navigation tower and bigger fuel tanks. Apparently, by two days in, he’d already changed out the piston …
You can read about Espinasse and see his bike here, and find him on Facebook here.
Dakar Stage 4 results
- Goncalves (Honda) 3:49:29
- Benavides (Honda) 03:54:15 (+00:04:46)
- Faria (Husqvarna) 03:54:55 (+00:05:26)
- Barreda (Honda) 03:55:03 (+00:05:34) (00:05:00 penalty)
- Meo (KTM) 03:56:13 (+00:06:44)
- Brabec (Honda) 03:57:14 (+00:07:45)
- Farres (KTM) 03:57:27 (+00:07:58)
- Quintanilla (Husqvarna) 03:57:34 (+00:08:05)
- Metge (Honda) 03:57:45 (+00:08:16)
Overall standings
- Goncalves (Honda) 10:17:27
- Benavides (Honda) 10:21:53 (+00:04:26)
- Barreda (Honda) 10:22:53 (+00:05:26) (00:06:00 penalty)
- Svitko (KTM) 10:25:35 (+00:08:08) (00:01:00 penalty)
- Faria (Husqvarna) 10:25:42 (+00:08:15) (00:01:00 penalty)
- Quintanilla (Husqvarna) 10:28:02 (+00:10:35) (00:01:00 penalty)
- Price (KTM) 10:28:10 (+00:10:43)
- Meo (KTM) 10:30:51 (00:13:24)
- Duclos (Sherco TVS) 10:31:28 (+00:14:01)
Speeding ? You’ve got to be kidding – these guys can’t even name their ‘event’ after the right country….
Soooo, your racing and you go to fast…… and get penalties because your faster than everybody else….. yeah perfect sense, i totally get it. Not.
Because Dakar uses public roads at times, even traveling through towns, certain sections have a speed limit (and it’s indicated clearly by their navigation equipment). It’s not unusual in these types of races, and without it, competitors could run over stray children or livestock. No different than pit lane speed limits, etc., in roadracing.
Then close the roads.