Dakar Rally - Calama to Iquique
As the Dakar Rally made its way through Chile, Chilean Fransisco Lopez thought that he would be able to claim a stage win in front of his home crowd. Lopez scored the best time for the day, but after a time adjustment given to Paulo Goncalves, the Chilean rider had to settle for second.
“It was really difficult today," Chaleco Lopes said. "I lost rack of the way twice, but Cyril found the right way. After that, it was my turn to find the correct direction. The navigation was extremely complicated, but that’s the Dakar. The race really started today. It was a genuine day of rally-raiding with technical problems and lots of navigation. In the end, I rode quite cautiously. Grabbing a good finish today was really great.”
Goncalves lost time when he stopped to help Olivier Pain, who crashed at the 231 Km marker. After Goncalves finished the stage, he was given back the time he lost, which gave him his first Dakar stage victory. Pain broke his wrist, and was airlifted to a nearby hospital.
The 5th stage of the Dakar Rally was the first not to be won by Cyril Despres or Marc Coma. Coma and Despres both gave up some vaulable time to their competitors. Coma fell at the start of the stage, and finished 13 minutes behind Lopez, and Despres was given a ten minute penalty for a starting procedure start during stage four.
“I was told at half past four in the morning that I’d been given a penalty,"Despres said. "I just forgot my thermal gloves, so I went back to get them and I didn’t see that there were signposts I had to follow at the exit. Unfortunately for me, that’s the race rules, but I’ve already forgotten about it with what I experienced today. This is why I ride rally-raids: 425 km of navigation and pleasure. We had to go looking for GPS coordinates that were genuinely like needles in haystacks. Forgetting about the time or penalties, the most important thing for me is to feel good and enjoy myself. I saw that Marc Coma was carrying out repairs around the 70 km point. I’ve never rejoiced about other peoples problems. What’s important for me, is the race I ride.”
The two KTM favorites still hold an 8 minute lead in the general standings.
