One second, Helder!

Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge
Tuesday, 5 April 2016
Second Special: 280.06 km

The day’s laurels go to Helder Rodrigues (Yamaha), one second ahead of Toby Price (KTM)

The sun has finally emerged over the dunes of Abu Dhabi and the temperature has soared accordingly. 
After the technical problem that forced him to return to bivouac yesterday, Helder Rodrigues set out this morning on his Yamaha, now as good as new, determined to go all out, and won the Special just by just one second ahead of Toby Price and 2''02 ahead of Sam Sunderland. 

“Sand, sand and more sand”, observed Toby Price back at the bivouac. “I caught up with the lads who set off ahead of me and continued out front. It was a long and great day of riding, and, as always, I had a blast.” At his side, Sam Sunderland has this to say: “When Toby caught us up I followed him because he opened the trail nearly all the way… My shoulder hurts a bit, but it’s OK, I don’t think about it too much.”  

Price heads up the provisional leader board with a lead of 57 seconds over Sunderland and 1'15 over Pablo Quintanilla (Husqvarna). “I lost time at the start this morning”, explains the Chilean, who finished 4th in the Special, level with Arana, “but there are still two days’ racing left”.

Al Balooshi (KTM) came 6th despite a heavy crash at km218 that damaged his front wheel. He was followed by the young Chilean, José Cornejo (KTM), Pela Renet (Husqvarna) and Laia Sanz (KTM). “Yesterday I managed to catch up with Laia”, says Pela, “and I left 4th this morning, but I rode alone all day as the three guys in front were too fast for me. The ones behind me caught me up a bit, but I am learning every day.”
Kuba Piatek (KTM) from Poland had a heavy crash yesterday. “I was a bit dazed as I hit my head hard”, he explained, “so today I had to ride more gently and with more respect for the desert…” 

In quad, Ignacio Casale was able to start today and finished as first quad and 12th in the Special. Rafal Sonik was 15th et Koolen 17th.  

Judith Tomaselli