Coma secures second Dakar Rallye victory!
By TMX Archives on 22nd Jan 09
SPANIARD Marc Coma maintained his composure under pressure over the closing stages to secure his second victory in the infamous Dakar Rallye. The Team Repsol KTM rider had led the event since the first stage and overcome the psychological burden of wearing the yellow jersey' to discipline himself to ride at a measured pace throughout the most difficult Dakar in its chequered 31-year history. There were so many days of work, said Coma. It was a really tough race. We did not know the type of terrain too well and it was hard to have a good race strategy. There are a lot of people behind the scenes who made this win possible. Now I can enjoy the moment.
Cyril Despres lost chunks of time with tyre problems over the early stages, but managed to claw his way back from the rear of the chasing pack to clinch a superb second position. It was a great way to finish, but I lost the Rallye in the first few days and it could only get better from then on, admitted Despres. But he still finished 85-minutes 38-seconds behind his great rival.
Under the circumstances it was a remarkable feat, his canny knack of applying the pressure was enough to demote fellow Frenchman, David Fretigne, to third overall and first in the 450cc class on his Yamaha. People said it was not possible to put a 450cc bike on the podium, but I have proved them wrong and am very happy with this result, admitted Fretigne.
Mick Extance and Stanley Watt both incurred four hours' of time penalties during the second week, which cost them top-20 finishes, but both rode superbly to record 26th and 38th overall. Craig Bounds headed the Team Desert Rose contingent in 54th, with Ireland's Gary Ennis finishing 87th and Bounds' Scottish team-mate, Euan Buchan, reaching Buenos Aires in 90th overall.
2009 DAKAR RALLYE
Argentina - Chile - Argentina
Final Positions: 1 Marc Coma (E - 690 KTM Rallye) 52-hours 14-min 33-sec, 2 Cyril Despres (F - 690 KTM Rallye) 53:40:11, 3 David Fretigne (F - 450 Yamaha WRF) 53:53:29, 4 David Casteu (F - 690 KTM Rallye) 54:32:27, 5 Helder Rodrigues (P - 690 KTM) 54:36:44, 6 Pal-Anders Ullesvalseter (N - 690 KTM Rallye) 54:39:35, 7Jordi Viladoms (E - 690 KTM Rallye) 54:43:02, 8 Frans Verhoeven (NL - 690 KTM) 55:05:12, 9 Henk Knuiman (NL - 690 KTM) 55:37:12, 10 Paolo Goncalves (P - 450F Honda) 56:27:15,...
British and Irish Entrants: 26 Mick Extance (GB - 450F Honda) 65:29:02,... 38 Stanley Watt (GB - 690 KTM Rallye Replica) 67:19:30,... 54 Craig Bounds (GB - 525 KTM) 73:06:36,... 87 Gary Ennis (IRL - 660 KTM Rallye) 88:00:07,... 90 Euan Buchan (GB - 525 KTM) 88:52:38,...
Select Others: 68 Simon Pavey (AUS - 650 BMW) 78:20:23,... 94 Michael Shepherd (NZ - KTM)
92:33:19.
FOR FULL REPORT SEE T+MX NEWS, FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 2009
Frenchman Cyril Despres put in maximum effort to bounce back from a bad start, to eventually take second overall. Picture: C BARREIRA.