Toby Price wins opening stage of Dakar Rally 2020
Australian Toby Price leads the Dakar Rally after the first ever stage in Saudi ArabiaToby Price has kicked off his 2020 Dakar Rally campaign with a win in the opening stage. The Australian rider piloted his KTM to victory in the first ever stage on Saudi Arabian soil, finishing ahead of Ricky Brabec (Honda) and his KTM teammate, Matthias Walkner.
The stage consisted of 433 kilometres of liaison and a 319km timed special stage. Beginning in Jeddah, the riders travelled north along the Red Sea coast to Al Wajh.
Price finished the special stage two minutes and five seconds clear of Brabec, but a two minute penalty has reduced the gap to five seconds. Walkner is 40 seconds behind Price.
“I had a really good day today up until about 140 kilometres when my road book started to play up,” said Price. “Something got caught in there and jammed up the rollers, so I was left without a road book for a while. My result looked good on paper but it turned out to be quite a tricky day.”
Stage two will see riders head to Neom, with a 367km special stage to tackle. It is also the first half of the new ‘Super Marathon’ stage, where riders will only have 10 minutes to work on their bikes.
Price is gunning for his third Dakar Rally title, after his successes in 2016 and 2019.
Dakar 2020 Top-10 (After Stage 1)
- Toby Price (KTM) - 3:21'33
- Ricky Brabec (Honda) - 3:21'38
- Matthias Walkner (KTM) - 3:22'13
- Kevin Benavides (Honda) - 3:24'04
- Sam Sunderland (KTM) - 3:24'48
- Pablo Quintanilla (Husqvarna) - 3:25'09
- Joan Barreda Bort (Honda) - 3:27'24
- Luciano Benavides (KTM) - 3:28'29
- Andrew Short (Husqvarna) - 3:28'36
- Adrien Van Beveren (Yamaha) - 3:29'25
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