Dakar 2016, Stage 7

With the Dakar rally now past the halfway mark, we’re looking at a very different race.

First, the details on Stage 7: Once again, rain played a huge factor, causing the race to be shortened. Polish rider Jakub Piatek actually had his bike washed away over a waterfall when he tried to take a shortcut across a river, causing organizers to rethink the stage. In the end, they called it at WP 5, leaving Antoine Meo (KTM) the stage winner, with Kevin Benavides (Honda) second and Paulo Goncalves (Honda) third.

At the end of the day’s riding, many riders were separated from their support vehicles for some time when a bridge between them was closed due to danger of being washed away; eventually, the situation subsided, and riders were able to go into their rest day.

The story so far, and the week ahead

After Saturday’s Stage 7 and Sunday’s rest day, the top 10 lineup that left the gate this morning looks very different from the crew that dominated last week, with two more big names knocked out.

We’d already told you about Joan Barreda’s bike failure in Stage 6 that plummeted Honda’s ace rider down the standings. When the breakdown was first reported, the assumption was that Barreda would continue on, as he has after bike failure in past years, trying to win individual stages. That’s not the case; Big Red’s star has withdrawn.

Why Barreda has withdrawn is a matter of some speculation. Barreda himself said it was due to an injury in his left hand, suffered before Dakar and aggravated when he crashed while being towed aboard his disabled bike. However, Taichi Honda, the HRC Rally Project team leader, said ““We feel sorry and embarrassed as a team that Barreda had to retire from the race for two years in a row due to mechanical trouble.”

Wait a minute — if it was simply a blown engine, Barreda would certainly be in the hunt still, despite his penalties, as he could be of great assistance to teammate and race leader Goncalves, and could gain experience for next year’s race. Maybe Bam Bam is tired of his bikes breaking down? It would seem that Honda would be happy to blame injury, not mechanical failure, for his departure, so the whole situation is strange.

The other big name knocked out was KTM’s Matthias Walkner. The Austrian rider had proved to be one of the fastest riders at this year’s rally, but crashed hard in the early parts of Stage 7 and broke his femur. That makes three (Walkner, Jakes, Faria) of KTM’s top riders eliminated, and four of the race’s consistent top-10 finishers gone in the last two stages.

Now consider this: Marc Coma, who moved from racing to the organizational side of the Dakar rally, has said the second half of the race is going to get much more difficult. In particular, it seems we might see much more emphasis on navigation. Given that several of the race’s current front-runners are relatively inexperienced at Dakar, we might see a lot more upheaval in the ranks

One explanation for the high attrition among race leaders in the past couple days is the high speeds they’ve been able to put down. The early stages of this year’s race have had very easy navigation, making it possible to ride faster. More speed over hundreds of kilometres of off-road eventually equals more crashes. But with organizer’s backs against the wall, in a hurry to put together a new route when Peru bailed on this year’s rally back in August, they had little choice but to string together an event in a hurry, with this result. There have been some complaints from competitors that this year’s roadbook isn’t up to standards, although that also may just be unwarranted griping.

Dakar Stage 7 results

1. Meo (KTM) 02:27:27
2. Benavides (Honda) 02:29:20 (+00:01:53)
3. Goncalves (Honda) 02:29:23 (+00:01:56)
4. Metge (Honda) 02:31:18 (+00:03:51)
5. Price (KTM) 02:32:00 (+00:04:33)
6. Quintanilla (Husqvarna) 02:32:19 (+00:04:52)
   
7. Arana (Husqvarna) 02:32:30 (+00:05:03)
8. Farres (KTM) 02:33:28 (+00:06:01)
9. Svitko (KTM) 02:33:30 (+00:06:03)
10. Brabec (Honda) 02:33:44 (+00:06:17)

Overall standings

1. Goncalves (Honda) 22:52:30
2. Price (KTM) 22:55:42 (+00:03:12)
3. Svitko (KTM) 23:01:54 (+00:09:24) (00:01:00 penalty)
4. Quintanilla (Husqvarna) 23:10:36 (+00:18:06)
5. Benavides (Honda) 23:13:31(+00:21:01)
6. Meo (KTM) 23:13:36 (+00:21:06)
   
7. Rodrigues (Yamaha) 23:17:14 (+00:24:44) (00:02:00 penalty)
8. Farres (KTM) 23:22:27 (+00:29:57)
9. Duclos (Sherco TVS) 23:23:02 (+00:30:32)
10. Pedrero (Sherco TVS) 23:24:15 (+00:31:45) (+00:02:00 penalty)