Des'perate times for Cyril
By TMX Archives on 14th Jan 11
Spaniard Marc Coma held the upper hand over defending champion Cyril Despres, as the 33rd Personal Dakar Argentina-Chile reached Antofagasta on the Chilean Pacific coast after seven of the event's planned 13 timed stages.
The Spaniard had benefited from a ten-minute time-penalty handed to the Frenchman earlier in the week and set out into the stage to Copiapo with an overall advantage of 7-min 24-sec.
The pair had, as expected, controlled the race from the front on their 450 KTM Rallye bikes, but stage victories had been shared out between several riders, with Portugal's Paulo Goncalves winning a special for BMW and Francisco Lopez winning the section into Antofagasta for Aprilia.
Lopes held third overall after seven stages, with Yamaha's Helder Rodrigues sitting in fourth position to ensure there were three bike manufacturers in the top four.
Britain's Craig Bounds had been running as high as 43rd overall on his Yamaha WR450, running with support from Delta Kunstoffe, Sepura Bowmanstar, Askey Precision Engineering and Yamaha UK.
However the Welshman was able to go no further than the middle of the punishing special stage between Iquique and Arica last Friday and was out of the event on the eve of the rest day. Jenifer Morgan is reported to have fallen and injured her arm two days earlier.
Speeding penalties had been imposed on 80 riders as the event headed into San Miguel de Tucuman last week and there were minor changes on the leader board, as the rally headed further north towards San Salvador de Jujuy, near to the Argentine border with Bolivia.
Bounds and Morgan restarted in 39th and 148th positions, as the route began to climb into the foothills of the Andes. When Faria was handed a one-minute time penalty, Despres benefited from winning both of the opening two stages and he led the way into the section towards Jujuy.
The Frenchman was forced to stop early on the section and this handed the rally lead to the front-running Coma.
The stage was split into two sections by a narrow and dangerous descent and the second section was deemed too narrow for the trucks under the trees. Coma was fastest at the end of the first 226km part and reached the finish in front to record his first stage win of the campaign.
Goncalves held second at the end of the first section and reached the stage finish in third, but Despres managed to regroup and claim second to lead Coma by just 14-seconds heading into the fourth stage and the crossing of the Andes mountain range into Calama in Chile.
Faria, who had been deprived of a first stage win by that speeding penalty into Cordoba, held third position with Goncalves, Brazilian Rodrigues Filho and Frenchman Olivier Pain rounding off the top six.
Bounds slipped to 48th on the last stage in Argentina and Morgan was classified in 129th overall.
33rd PERSONAL DAKAR ARGENTINA-CHILE Positions after SS7 (Arica to Antofagasta)
OVERALL: 1 Marc Coma (E - 450 KTM RR) 26-hr 13-min 50-sec, 2 Cyril Despres (F - 450 KTM RR) 26:21:14, 3 Francesco Lopez (CHL - 450 Aprilia RXV) 26:32:17, 4 Helder Rodrigues (P - 450F Yamaha WR) 26:46:54, 5 Ruben Faria (P - 450 KTM RR) 26:54:43, 6 Frans Verhoeven (NL - 450 BMW RR) 27:28:00, 7 Juan Pedrero Garcia (E - 450 KTM) 27:30:23, 8 Stefan Svitko (SVK - 450 KTM) 27:30:44, 9 Jordi Viladoms (E - 450F Yamaha) 27:34:01, 10 Pal-Anders Ullesvalseter (N - 450 KTM) 27:51:13,...
British entrants
Craig Bounds (GB - 450F Yamaha) Retired SS6
Jenifer Morgan (GB - 450F Yamaha) Retired SS4
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE T+MX JANUARY 14