Dakar, stage 12

Dakar 2014
Friday 17 January 2014
Twelfth Stage: El Salvador – La Serena
Special: 350 km – Link section: 349 km – Total: 699 km

La Camanchaca (a kind of fog) hung over the bivouac in El Salvador this morning but had the grace to dissipate quickly in time to let the motorcycle contingent set off at 0815 as planned. There were just 79 motorcycles and 15 quads at the start…

To be on the safe side, Marc Coma (KTM) changed his engine last night, taking a 15’ penalty that brought his lead over Barreda (Honda) down to just 37'. Coma and Després (Yamaha) rode together as they did yesterday and at one juncture they had to turn back to find a way point. Després won the La Serena Special with a lead of 2'17 over the man from Catalonia and 5'53 over Olivier Pain (Yamaha) who is finishing the Dakar in style. The Frenchman finished ahead of Viladoms, Gouet from Chile, Przygonski and Casteu, who hung in their despite a broken collar bone.

But it was a black day for Joan Barreda who probably crashed as he stopped to work on the bike and was observed riding while holding on to the fork head of his Honda...

There was therefore a shakeup in the general rankings. Coma is still in front but followed by his team mate Jordi Viladoms and Olivier Pain, all three of them having changed their engines... Després has moved up to 4th ahead of Helder Rodrigues (Honda). But there is still one day to go and it isn’t over until everyone has taken the chequered flag!

In the quad class, Lafuente (Yamaha) threw in the towel two days ago with a broken engine. Casale won the Special ahead of Russia’s Karyakin, Husseini, Gallegos and Sonik.