Despite the stern and hot test thrown at the riders as they neared the home run of this edition of the Dakar, Hero Motosports Team Rally riders, Joaquim Rodrigues and C.S. Santosh, played it cool and sensibly towards realising a dream Dakar debut for the Indian team.

 

Rodrigues, based on the previous stage’s classification, was the 16^th rider to start the timed section where many of the frontrunners lost plenty of time trying to find the correct track and the way points. Rodrigues too had to spend more time than he would have liked to find the correct route in some of the most challenging parts of the course.

The presence of tall and thorny vegetation along the course only complicated the task at hand as it impeded the vision of the riders. But in the second part of the special, the Portuguese rider put together stellar race to complete the timed section in 6 hour 40 minutes that put him in 19^th place in the provisional stage classification. After 10 stages, Rodrigues is in 14^th place and now looking to reach the finishing line at Buenos Aires.

“Today was really an extreme day. The terrain was very tough and very difficult. In the beginning, I had a bit of tough time trying to find a waypoint and lost some time. After that I just kept going, but the conditions were very difficult and hot. There was no place to rest even for a minute. At one point, I had to calm myself down because it was very physical to ride this stage. Today we had rocks, trial and sand. I lost some time, but I managed to make it to the bivouac. Now there is one more big stage to go and go to Buenos Aires,” said Rodrigues.

Santosh, the second Hero Motosports Team Rally rider, too roughed it out on the hardest day of this Dakar. Like most of the riders, he too lost some time at the 53-km mark, trying to find a tricky waypoint. But once he overcame the first hurdle, Santosh worked up a good rhythm to keep the rest of his race smooth.

In the second part of the special, which had fast but bumpy piste, Santosh kept a steady pace to finish his day in 37^th place with a time of 7 hour 38 minute 51 seconds. His performance on the 10^th stage puts him in 50^th place.

“It was a brutal day out there with all this heat, navigation and bumpy tracks. All this made it a very physical stage and it was very hot. It was one of days when you have to tough it out and try to make it to the end. I just did that, and I am pretty happy with the way the bike performed in these conditions. I am looking forward to reaching Buenos Aires,” said Santosh after reaching the San Juan bivouac.

 

 

 

The 2017 Dakar Rally on Thursday continued to surprise, and to exact revenge on the remaining field of 101 motorcycles in another stage that proved to be difficult for almost every rider. Despite losing time at the beginning of the timed special, Red Bull KTM factory rider Sam Sunderland held onto the overall lead at the end of the day, now in front of his teammate Matthias Walkner in second, even if both finished down the order in the stage results.

The British rider fought hard on the KTM 450 RALLY to make up his lost time, but the fact that Pablo Quintanilla, Sam Sunderland’s closest rival retired due to illness in the afternoon, allowed him to finish the day with an advantage of 30 minutes in the standings. Second is now his Austrian teammate Matthias Walkner with Spanish KTM rider Gerard Farres Guell in third place, 38:43 minutes off the leading time.Stage winner was Spain’s Joan Barreda with Stefan Svitko of Slovakia (KTM) second and Argentinian rider Franco Caimi in third place.The day’s results also reflected the level of difficulty of Thursday’s ride during which competitors had to recover their race rhythm after an enforced break on Wednesday. Stage 9 was cancelled after an avalanche on Tuesday cut the liaison road and leaving many riders and support and logistics vehicles stranded. They were still racing to catch up to the body of the rally at the overnight stop after the 10th stage, which took riders from Chilecito to San Juan. After the 449 km timed special of a total of 751 km, Sunderland finished in 12th 17:06 minutes off the lead. Walkner fared somewhat better. He was 10th in the stage, 12:53 off the fastest time.Sunderland: “I started out thinking I’ve got a bit of a lead so I just wanted to take it easy and stick to my road book and try to start with a good rhythm. Then after about 40 km it was very confusing in some of the riverbeds. I went into the wrong valley and I got a bit stressed but I managed to correct pretty fast. Then I made another mistake. It was really hard. The road book said to follow the river but there were so many rivers all going in different ways. It’s quite hard to stay positive, especially when you make a mistake. But when I arrived at the refueling I saw there were only a couple of bikes there, so I didn’t actually lose much time.”Walkner: “Actually it was not such a good day but it was very difficult for everyone with the navigation. I tried to give my best and I just got lost once, but it was a big mistake. Now there are just two days left and I will keep pushing and try not to do anything stupid because the situation is now quite good.”While almost all the lead riders had difficulty with the stage, KTM factory rider Laia Sanz, the reigning World Champion in Women’s Enduro rode consistently well to finish 14th to trail by 21:39 minutes. She is now overall 18th and is within striking distance of her goal of a top 15 finish.

Sanz: “I really enjoyed the first part of the special because it was a lot of navigation. I made some small mistakes but nothing serious. I took it easy when I saw how difficult the navigation was because I didn’t want to get lost like I did in the first week. I was ninth in the first part but the second part was not my favorite kind of stage with Motocross and lots of bumps. I also ran out of water and it was very hot so I just relaxed and tried to reach the finish. I think the beginning of tomorrow’s test will also be very hard but I hope to have another good day.”

As promised by race direction, the first part of the stage had its share of challenges with a long ‘trials’ section, and this clearly proved difficult for many riders. After near freezing temperatures at Altitude in Bolivia, riders now also have to contend with temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius.

Friday, the penultimate stage takes the rally from San Juan to Rio Cuarto over a distance of 754 km of which 288 km is timed special, the first 50 km will be in the San Juan dunes. The rally finishes in Buenos Aires on Saturday.

Stage 10 Classification

1 BARREDA BORT JOAN (ESP) HONDA CRF450RALLY 05h49m45s
2 SVITKO STEFAN (SVK) KTM 450 RALLY REPLICA 05h50m09s +24s
3 CAIMI FRANCO (ARG) HONDA CRF450 RALLY 05h53m33s +03m48s
4 RENET PIERRE ALEXANDRE (FRA) HUSQVARNA FR 450 RALLY 05h54m06s +04m21s
5 RODRIGUES HELDER (PRT) YAMAHA WR450F 05h55m31s +05m46s
6 CERVANTES MONTERO IVAN (ESP) KTM RALLY 05h57m00s +07m15s
7 METGE ADRIEN (FRA) SHERCO TVS RTR 450 05h58m03s +08m18s
8 GONÇALVES PAULO (PRT) HONDA CRF450RALLY 05h58m28s +08m43s
9 KLYMCIW ONDREJ (CZE) HUSQVARNA HUSQVARNA FR 450 RALLY 05h59m07s +09m22s
10 WALKNER MATTHIAS (AUT) KTM 450 RALLY REPLICA 06h02m38s +12m53s
11 SALVATIERRA JUAN CARLOS (BOL) KTM 450 06h04m42s +14m57s
12 SUNDERLAND SAM (GBR) KTM 450 RALLY REPLICA 06h06m51s +17m06s
13 FARRES GUELL GERARD (ESP) KTM 450 RALLY 06h11m10s +21m25s
14 SANZ LAIA (ESP) KTM 450 RALLY REPLICA 06h11m24s +21m39s
15 GYENES EMANUEL (ROU) KTM 450 RALLY REPLICA 06h13m17s +23m32s
16 PEDRERO GARCIA JUAN (ESP) SHERCO TVS RTR 450 06h16m15s +26m30s
17 VAN BEVEREN ADRIEN (FRA) YAMAHA WR450F 06h19m59s +30m14s
18 GIMENO GARCÍA ANTONIO (ESP) KTM 450 RALLY 06h36m47s +47m02s
19 RODRIGUES JOAQUIM (PRT) HERO SPEEDBRAIN 450 RALLY 06h40m00s +50m15s
20 PATRAO MÁRIO (PRT) KTM 450 RALLY 06h40m07s +50m22s
37 CS SANTOSH (IND) HERO SPEEDBRAIN 450 RALLY 07h38m51s +01h49m06s

 

Overall Classification
1 SUNDERLAND SAM (GBR) KTM 450 RALLY REPLICA 28h07m59s
2 WALKNER MATTHIAS (AUT) KTM 450 RALLY REPLICA 28h38m00s +30m01s
3 FARRES GUELL GERARD (ESP) KTM 450 RALLY 28h46m42s +38m43s
4 VAN BEVEREN ADRIEN (FRA) YAMAHA WR450F 28h49m56s +41m57s
5 BARREDA BORT JOAN (ESP) HONDA CRF450RALLY 01h01m00s 29h01m46s +53m47s
6 RENET PIERRE ALEXANDRE (FRA) HUSQVARNA FR 450 RALLY 29h03m23s +55m24s
7 GONÇALVES PAULO (PRT) HONDA CRF450RALLY 48m20s 29h08m10s +01h00m11s
8 DE SOULTRAIT XAVIER (FRA) YAMAHA WR 450 F 29h40m54s +01h32m55s
9 CAIMI FRANCO (ARG) HONDA CRF450 RALLY 29h45m56s +01h37m57s
10 SVITKO STEFAN (SVK) KTM 450 RALLY REPLICA 29h56m44s +01h48m45s
11 RODRIGUES HELDER (PRT) YAMAHA WR450F 27s 29h59m24s +01h51m25s
12 SALVATIERRA JUAN CARLOS (BOL) KTM 450 30h12m37s +02h04m38s
13 KLYMCIW ONDREJ (CZE) HUSQVARNA HUSQVARNA FR 450 RALLY 30h16m54s +02h08m55s
14 RODRIGUES JOAQUIM (PRT) HERO SPEEDBRAIN 450 RALLY – 30h17m08s +02h09m09s
15 CERVANTES MONTERO IVAN (ESP) KTM RALLY 30h30m03s +02h22m04s
16 PEDRERO GARCIA JUAN (ESP) SHERCO TVS RTR 450 30h34m17s +02h26m18s
17 METGE MICHAEL (FRA) HONDA CRF450RALLY 30h43m32s +02h35m33s
18 SANZ LAIA (ESP) KTM 450 RALLY REPLICA 30h53m03s +02h45m04s
19 DUPLESSIS DIEGO MARTIN (ARG) KTM 450 RALLY EXC – 30h56m32s +02h48m33s
20 PATRAO MÁRIO (PRT) KTM 450 RALLY – 31h03m50s +02h55m51s
26 METGE ADRIEN (FRA) SHERCO TVS RTR 450 32h17m41s +04h09m42s
51 CS SANTOSH (IND) HERO SPEEDBRAIN 450 RALLY 36h52m03s +08h44m04