Grabham out of Dakar Rally

KTM’s Ben Grabham is out of the 2014 Dakar Rally after crashing in the fourth stage of the event between San Juan and Chilecito in Argentina.

The 32-year-old crashed heavily in thick dust, and then was taken to hospital for examination before subsequently being released. Grabham suffered a strong blow to the head, as well as being battered and bruised.

“I'm a bit sore and sorry for myself as I started in 79th place and the dust was so bad that even though I was trying to take it easy I clipped a rock on top of a mountain and ended up going over a pretty big drop," said Grabham. "The bike and I tumbled close to 100 metres down the mountain. I’m pretty sore all over but lucky not to have done worse. My head was knocked a bit silly for the day and the bike was not coming out of where it was without a chopper to lift it out.

"It took me an eight-hour taxi ride over the mountains to catch back up with the team. I didn't know where I was and neither did anyone else for about seven hours -- and to make matters worse, no one around me could speak any English, my phone was flat and I was starting to think I was going to have to live there until I learned how to speak Spanish!”

The stage win went to Juan Pedrero Garcia (Sherco) ahead of KTM riders Francisco Lopez Contardo and Marc Coma, while in the overall standings Juan Barreda Bort (Honda) holds a three-minute and 10-second (3:10) lead over Coma, followed by Contardo (5:12), Alain Duclos (Sherco, 25:55) and Olivier Pain (Yamaha, 29:38).

Barreda Bort lost precious minutes in stage four due to a navigation error, although he managed to limit the damage by pushing his motorcycle hard towards the end. Defending champion Cyril Despres (Yamaha) was dealt a more savage blow when his bike expired with about 12km to go, and could only watch as his rivals disappeared into the distance.

The five-time winner now has a 41-minute deficit to Barreda in the general classification. With a history of amazing comebacks, it is too early to write Despres off, but his task has just become even more difficult than he had imagined.

Allan Roberts (KTM) is now the leading Australian in 52nd position after Shane Diener (Yamaha) copped a two-hour penalty which saw him slump down the general classification to 73rd.

For full results and standings, click here.