2022 Dakar Stage 7: Chucking it all away

GasGas factory rider Daniel Sanders’ nickname is “Chucky,” but he’s not named after the character from the scary Child’s Play movies. He earned the nickname in his days as a young offroad racer at home in Australia, where he was known for barfing up his dinner before races.

However, Chucky’s 2022 Dakar has indeed turned into a bit of a horror film, with the young hotshot headed home after crashing, breaking his elbow and bruising his kidney … on a paved liaison stage.

This comes right after lambasting his fellow racers for asking that Stage 6 be shortened prematurely, because of danger. Sanders had been doing pretty well in Stage 6, navigating around the mess left by 4×4 competitors, and vocally expressed his dissatisfaction over social media. Subsequent photos of the GasGas bivouac showed Sanders sitting off alone, with some seriously disgruntled body language, while the rest of his team wrenched away. All was not well with his teammate Sam Sunderland, it appeared.

And now, Sanders has crashed during the liaison before Stage 7, the easiest part of the day’s ride. This section isn’t even timed, it’s just a transit stage from the night’s resting point to the start of the timed special. How does a guy crash here?

Easy: Running in the wee hours of the morning half-asleep, with crappy headlights, and possibly poor signage, Sanders didn’t realize he was in approaching a T-stop, and hit a high curb, pitching him into the weeds. Indeed, other competitors had reportedly narrowly avoided the same error earlier. Now, Sanders is out of the rally, perhaps somewhat embarrassed over his ignominious exit after his tough talk over Stage 6. Indeed, it seemed the ASO (the organizers of the Dakar Rally) were intent on rubbing salt in the wounds with comments on social media.

Ah well. Sanders is just a kid still, and he’ll be back for 2023, probably even faster, after a season of tearing up in the FIM Cross-Country series.

On from Sander’s exit, we see that Ross Branch is still hanging in there (we reported he was out, due to a crash before the rest day between Stages 6 and 7). So does he have a broken leg, or doesn’t he? Here’s what he said on social media:

“I had one of the biggest crashes of my rally career. I hit a step that sent me over the bars. I’m ok and have a really bad bruise on my right side. I’m really happy to have walked away.. after the rest day yesterday I feel ok to try and get back onto the bike for stage 7. I will give it my best and try and have some fun …”

What a contrast—Sanders wipes out on seemingly easy pavement and has to leave, while Branch has a mega off, and is still in it. Such is the heartless nature of the Dakar Rally.

Seeing Sanders’ injuries, you do have to wonder what sort of gear he was wearing. Danilo Petrucci is no doubt cursing his flimsy offroad attire as his crash at the start of Stage 6 left him all stitched up—that wouldn’t have done more than scuff the surface of his MotoGP leathers.

Some of it does come down to the individual toughness of each rider. Look at Joan Barreda, the oft-banged-up Honda rider. Barreda put in an absolute legend of a ride on Stage 7, finishing third overall on the day, riding for hours at a blistering pace with a broken collarbone. It’ll take more than that to slow Bam Bam down!

Speaking of the standings for Stage 7: “Nacho” Cornejo was the winner on the day. The modest Honda factory rider is the ultimate Dakar sportsman, always speaking well of his team and never a flamboyant glory-seaker. In some ways, he could be seen as the successor to the crown for Pablo Goncalves, the much-loved Honda factory ace who died in the 2020 race (after switching to Hero to finish out his career).

Kevin Benavides  (KTM factory team) was second, ahead of Barreda, and alllllll the way down in 10th on the day, Adrien Van Beveren finished 12 and a half minutes behind Cornejo.

That was good enough to put Van Beveren in first overall, a place that the Yamaha rider would probably only achieve with a bit of luck. Well, luck has gone his way, and the crafty rider’s clever navigation has helped him stay at the forefront of the race without the flashy speed of some other riders.

It’s not the first time that Van Beveren has been put in front due to careful nav, but he’s been known to have some terrible misfortune over the years. In one incident during the South American years of the Dakar, he had a massive endo crash, hitting a hidden rock, just as he’d moved into a massive lead due to avoidance of a navigation error that took out the entire rest of the frontrunners. He went from a huge lead, to massive injuries and a helicopter ride, within minutes.

Let’s hope that doesn’t happen this year. Indeed, after last year’s awful mechanical meltdown, Van Beveren may just be hoping to finish this year’s event.

2022 DAKAR STAGE 7 RANKINGS

2022 DAKAR OVERALL TOP 10 (AFTER STAGE 7)