For the past few days, Cyril Despres has been waiting for Marc Coma to make a mistake. But that mistake never came. Coma had a near flawless 2011 Dakar, and was able to capture his third career title.
Coma started with a 16 minute lead ahead of Despres, so the big challenge of the stage was to stay composed. Being a veteran of the Dakar, Coma had no problem keeping Despres in check, and finished with more than 15 minutes over his KTM rival. It is Coma's third Dakar victory, which ties the numer of Dakars won by Despres.
"Staying focused was essential so I did focus on my riding," Coma said. "It was the only way to win. What was really tough was that I could not let my guard down, not even for a second. We all know that a Dakar is a difficult race but this year it was particularly difficult. This victory is the reward of all the hard work, the reward of many years and a lot of tensions over the last few days. It is the bonus you get for steering right and for so many sacrifices over the years. I have to pay tribute to all the people in my team, who supported me. We had ambitious goals and to reach them we had to have the best, people made for the Dakar and willing to all work towards the same goal. As anyone in the Dakar, we had tough times. So I am going to get some rest and think about the future. Becaue, truth is that with the race and the permanent tension I did not have time to think about anything else in a long time."
Chaleco Lopez Contardo seemed destined for third place for the second year in a row, but the final stage of the Dakar was disastrous for Chaleco. He broke the rear shock absorber on his bike, just 22 km from the end, and limped in behind Helder Rodrigues, who took the final spot on the podium.
