2022 Dakar Stage 12: It’s over!

The 2022 Dakar Rally is in the books, and GasGas factory rider Sam Sunderland is the winner.

No doubt it’s a very satisfying victory for the Brit ex-pat (Sunderland lives and trains in the Middle East these days). Sunderland’s career has had massive highs (he won the 2017 Dakar and was third in 2019 and 2021). He’s also had some massive lows—he’s earned a DNF in every other Dakar he’s raced.

It seems he’s maturing with age, and there were also rumours that KTM wasn’t happy with his 2021 performance, which explained his sideways move to GasGas. GasGas runs the exact same Dakar bike as KTM, but it’s definitely not as prestigious a gig. Maybe Sunderland changed that this year?

The actual final Stage win went to Honda’s Pablo Quintanilla, who was trying to push his way to the top. Instead, he finishes second overall, followed by KTM’s Matthias Walkner rounding out the podium. Yamaha’s Adrien Van Beveren earned a horrible fifteenth in the stage, ending fourth overall (what happened, Adrien?). Fifth overall went to Honda’s Joan Barreda, who once again proved all his detractors right by crashing horribly and mangling his body badly, putting him on the back foot for the second half of the race.

And yet, Barreda also proved all his fans right, by putting in the second half of the Dakar with a broken shoulder! Barreda isn’t displaying the alien-like speed he used to, back in the Dakar’s South American days, but he seems to have re-found the relentless drive to win. He will probably go down in history as the best rider of his generation to never earn a win at the event.

Word on the street is that Honda’s contracts are up at the end of this year’s rally. Does that mean Big Red might re-think its deal with Barreda? Hard to say; he’s not getting any younger, or more successful, but he’s still a guaranteed top-15, and probably a top-10, as long as his bike holds together.

Honda’s whole factory team is always a bit of a question mark anyway, and the rumours of a complete walkaway from the sport are also circulating again.

The Snakes and Ladders game

Just as the race itself is a game of clever Snakes and Ladders played in the desert, we also see riders’ careers following the same pattern. Some riders’ careers took a big step forward this year, while others seemed hit by a setback.

The most surprising decline was Toby Price. The Australian KTM factory rider ended 10th overall, and just barely. For a guy who was blazing-fast not that long ago, not to mention capable of tough-as-nails physical performance, it’s a surprising decline. Price has been banged up badly the past few years, though. Maybe that’s taking its toll.

The biggest surprise success? Rookie Mason Klein, who finished ninth overall for BAS Dakar, as the youngest-ever rider to debut at Dakar! This American kid is no doubt a major future star at Dakar, if he can fund future efforts, or if a factory team picks up his bills. That seems highly likely, given his potential. He won the Rally2 category this year, so as top rookie, a top-10 finish and the Rally2 win, he’s got a lot of hardware for his shelf.

The other surprise success was Daniel Sanders, who was on fire for GasGas until he had a humiliating crash on an early-morning liaison stage. It was only Sanders’ second Dakar. It seems highly likely he will win his third.

Top Canadian

This year, Jack Lundin finally made it to Dakar (he’s had bad luck in the past that interfered with his plans). He rode with HT Husqvarna Rally Raid this year.

This time, Lundin finished 60th overall, after starting in 70th. In his last Dakar finish, he ended in 77th, so he’s getting faster as he gets older (too bad that isn’t true for all of us!). So, he accomplished the goal he set out at start of this year’s Dakar: “My ambition remains the same: to finish, but I want to try and do better every day and eventually get a better result than my last one.” Good work!

2022 DAKAR RALLY STAGE 12 RANKINGS

2022 DAKAR RALLY FINAL STANDINGS