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NEWS
Coma loses his way, Despres rises
Stage three of the 2012 Dakar Rally saw Cyril Despres charge to the front after a blooper by his arch-rival, while Australia's Rod Faggotter was a revelationKTM’s Cyril Despres (pictured) now leads this year’s Dakar Rally by over 10 minutes, with his ascension to the top spot assisted by brandmate and defending champion Marc Coma taking a wrong turn.
Until that point – about 160km into the 270km timed stage – the two arch-rivals were running neck and neck, but Coma’s mistake saw Despres take full advantage, and he now heads into stage four with a 10-minute and 12-second (10:12) lead in the overall classification.
- For full results, click here
“It didn't start well this morning, because when I hit a hole, I ripped off a fingernail on the clutch,” said Despres. Sixty kilometres later, my compass repeater stopped. We reached the mountains and I wanted to keep the same pace, because I knew that Marc was riding very fast in front of me, but when we got to a stream, I must have slowed the pace when I had to check my GPS.
“To cap it all, I broke my rear brake on the big climb, so the descent was very tricky, but I made sure I was careful. I couldn't see many tyre tracks over the last 50km so I wasn't sure that Marc was up ahead.
“In the end, I finished first and I've been told that he chose the wrong track so that's going to be to my advantage. It's good for my position, even if I'm never happy about other people's setbacks.”
Dutch rider Frans Verhoeven (Sherco) was second in stage three, 8:37 behind Despres, followed by Paolo Goncalves (Husqvarna, 8:39), Helder Rodrigues (Yamaha, 10:03), Alain Duclos (Aprilia, 11:02 and Coma (13:04).
Australia’s Dakar rookie – but experienced desert racer -- Rod Faggotter (Husaberg) was a superb 16th, rocketing his way up the general classification to 26th – an 11-spot improvement in one day.
Stage three saw riders head north in Argentina, following the spine of the Andes Cordillera where they tracked through river beds and dodged rocks and potholes in a climb that took them to a breath-robbing 3000m altitude.
Meanwhile, Alejandro Patronelli (Yamaha) leads the quad division, and Pole Krzysztof Holowczyc (Mini) the cars.
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Written byBikesales Staff
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