King Coma the fifth
By TMX Archives on 21st Jan 15
Spaniard Marc Coma joined the all-time greats of the Dakar Rally when he secured a fifth victory on the worlds toughest off-road race. In so doing, the KTM 450 rider joined French legends, Cyril Despres and Cyril Neveu, on five wins apiece.Only Mister Dakar, Stephane Peterhansel, with six wins on a Yamaha and five with a car, has surpassed that impressive milestone.
For long periods, it looked as though Coma was going to come up just short in the defence of a Dakar crown he had already worn with pride in 2006, 2009, 2011 and 2014.
Team HRC's Joan Barreda Bort had outpaced the Catalan, out ridden him and built up an impressive lead on his Honda CRF450. But the Dakar is a cruel race and the weather ruined Barreda Bort's chance of upsetting the KTM applecart.
Heavy rain fell on the treacherous Bolivian salt flats, Barreda Bort's engine and electrics suffered more than most and the pendulum swung in Coma's favour. The Spaniard held on to beat Team HRC's Paulo Goncalves by 16-min 53-sec and give the Austrian manufacturer an unprecedented 14th successive Dakar win.
"I'm over the moon, that's for sure,” explained Coma. "Even on the last day we were not able to take it easy. There was a storm, the ground got muddy and with desert tyres it wasn't too easy. Our arrival in Bolivia heralded a decisive moment. We knew that. I survived and made it through. That was the key moment. It's been a life's work for the entire team. Now it's time to relax and have fun.”
Despite a late engine change that all but confirmed Coma's win, Goncalves was delighted with his runner-up position, but one of the rides of the rally came from Australian KTM rookie Toby Price. The speechless Aussie won a special stage and reached the finish in a sensational third overall, pipping Chile's Pablo Quintanilla on the last three stages.
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE TMX JANUARY 22 (ISSUE 1955)
