Marc Coma is once again in the lead. The defending Dakar Rally champion claimed his fifth stage win today, and more importantly, finished 3'57 seconds ahead of his rival Cyril Despres. Coma now has a 1'35" as we head to the penultimate day of the Dakar.
Coma started the day in the third position, which allowed the defending champ to concentrate more on speed and less on navigation.
"I set off four minutes after Cyril and I managed to catch up with him," Coma said. "For the entire first part of the special I mainly focused on navigation, because there was absolutely no room for mistakes. After that, I knew that there would be good opportunities to attack in the second part and that's where I managed to regain ground on Cyril. It's no way near over, because there's another big stage tomorrow."
Despres, who lead the way during the 12th stage, had the challenge of navigating the open road today. Tomorrow, however, Marc Coma will have the challenge of opening the stage while Despres will start from fourth.
"It was a magnificent stage, one of the finest specials that I've ridden on the Dakar over the last few years," Despres said. "In sporting terms, I expected that Marc was going to catch up with me and that it wouldn't be a good day. But it was majestic. I don't have any regrets, because I attacked throughout the first part. You have to go for broke on this Dakar; it's not a race where you can play the waiting game. Against Marc Coma, I'm doing battle with an excellent rider. He's quick and clever. So, I try and find the right pace. Apparently, there are riders in between us, so that's good news for the start tomorrow."
Here's a video summary of the 12th stage of the Dakar Rally.
