Dakar day two: Grabham gains two spots
The Aussie finished sixth – a personal best in the off-road marathon – and is now in ninth position overall heading into a couple of tough ‘you're on your own' stagesBathurst tough nut Ben Grabham has logged his best Dakar Rally result to date on the second day of this year’s event, finishing an impressive sixth in the January 6 trek from San Luis to San Rafael, Argentina.
“Day two was a 724km day with a 359km special test,” said Grabham. “{I had a very dusty ride apart from 40km of dune section in the middle. I made a few errors in the dunes just getting stuck but other than that I had a pretty clean day which gives me an even better starting position tomorrow.
“The bike is going good and I’m getting more used to it the more kilometres we do. It’s really hot here again today, in the 40s so it's pretty tough going but my Shotz hydration is working well.
“Tomorrow is the first day of the marathon stage, where we have no support crew for two days and only access to what we are carrying. We don't even get to see the crew at night as they are camping in a location no-one knows. So it’ll be important to try and save the bike and tyres to last two days.”
Stage two featured a super-fast opening before delivering riders to the dunes for the first time, and Briton Sam Sunderland won the day -- the second stage win in a row for Honda --ahead of Chilean Francesco Lopez Contardo (KTM) and Spanish rider Joan Barreda Bort (Honda), who leads the event overall.
Contardo is second overall on the general classification, two minutes and three seconds (2:03) behind Bort, while the top five is completed by Sunderland (2:33), Alain Duclos (Sherco, 5:47) and three-time champion Marc Coma (KTM, 7:00), who had issues in stage two with a rock wedged between his gearbox and gear lever.
Grabham (10:05) is in ninth position, one spot behind defending champion Cyril Despres (Yamaha, 8:23), who crashed hard on day two but escaped without any injuries
The first half of the first of two marathon stages takes riders from San Rafael to San Juan over a total of 665km, including a scheduled 373km timed special.
For full results and standings in the 2014 Dakar Rally, click here.
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