Antoine Méo has taken advantage of the fast tracks path of Peace to claim his first victory on the back of the KTM: “Has been a very good stage, very fast. I really enjoyed it because the tour was very stylish enduro and it suits my riding style. Have been a few hard days, but now the race enters on another phase. Of time, we have achieved a whole day of rest, so that we must now regain strength and face the second half of the Dakar with warranties”.
Kevin Benavides closed the stage in second position, a result that has helped the argentine to be placed as the new leader of the motorcycle category: “I Feel a happiness hard to express with words. I’m first in the overall of the Dakar! It has been a week quite difficult and today I get to The Peace in the best way possible. I have worked a lot to get here and now’s the time to take advantage of the day of rest to recover forces with a view to the second week of competition. Keep calm and keep enjoying”.
Adrien Van Beveren is being kept in positions of privilege after finishing with the eighth best time, the sixth stage: “it Has been a very long day, but we managed to come to Peace without problems. it Has rained for most of the day and it was very cold. Today the aim was not to make errors in navigation and get to the finish with a good time. I’m glad to get a day of rest in the second place of the general. Anything can happen”.
involved in the fight for the lead and after saving a difficult ballot in Peru, Joan Barreda was not showing as satisfied: “I have had a fall in an area of puddles. I had to stop and remove the water from the bike and the helmet. I’m a little concerned about the conditions that we can have the next few days, because there may be a lot of mud and water. In Bolivia we are a little expectant to the conditions, because in Argentina there are three stages very hard. I have quite a bit of pain in the wrist and I’m restless for it”.
Carlos Sainz has achieved its first victory path of Peace, breaking the trend that has been experienced during the first week of the Dakar: “Until now we had made out of track and arena, which are not precisely the grounds that I’d better go. Today, although there were many straight and was not especially interesting, has been good to change a bit of stage. Five days of sand are long. In any event, it’s a lot of career ahead, with stages 400 and 500 kilometers, and a marathon stage. anything can happen“.
Stéphane Peterhansel finished second, minimizing the loss of time with his team-mate: “Has truly been easy compared with what we had done until now. The difficulty today for some was dealing with the altitude sickness. You had to get to The Peace well-positioned, not to attack like crazy or take risks. At this stage of the race, I’m better than I expected. I thought that the struggle would be more intense, by a lot to know that the stages of Peru we agreed”.
Giniel de Villiers, fourth on the stage today, stated in its arrival to La Paz: “The stage of today has been totally different, very pleasant of face-to-ride and very fast. Has been a little difficult to address the first sector in altitude, but when it has arrived the second I was already better. There was a lot of water. It is grateful for the variety. Now we’re going to try to attack, so we keep aiming for the podium. There are still eight days of the race, so we have time”.
despite finishing today with a rate lower than the riders head, Nicolas Fuchs has also closed a first week positive: “Has been a very long day, with much cold, water and mud, but we finally finished the stage in eleventh place and we are happy to reach The Peace. Now we will rest, recover the body and leaving list the machine for this last week“.
–