KTM's Coma second in OilLibya Rally of Tunisia
By TMX Archives on 7th May 10
KTM factory rider Marc Coma attacked the final stage of the OilLibya Rally on Friday through tough desert conditions to make a heroic charge back to the front of the field to finish second overall behind Francisco (Chaleco) Lopez of Chile and snatch his third stage victory. The Spaniard's ride this week underlined why he is at the apex of his sportafter a tyre incident just 40 km from the finish line of stage two left him witha 25-minute deficit on Lopez and stranded back in eighth place. He then settleddown to close what seemed like an impossible gap and in the process won threestage victories and was second in a fourth.
But Marc was still lookingdown the barrel of a 20-minute gap going into the final stage on Friday, whichhe then proceeded to almost halve after what was a tough week's ride overextreme desert conditions. "Everything went very well. It was a very completeRally, with many dunes and navigation, and weather conditions that made thingsvery complicated over the last few days," Coma told reporters.
Hesaid he was pleased with his last stage win and the second place overall thatallowed him to pick up valuable World Championship points. "We had anothergood race, with a good pace and despite the problems of the first few days wefought to the end and did a very good job. Today was particularly tough because,although the special wasn't very long, the sand storm made it verydifficult."
On Friday riders covered a 132 km special to thewhite erg of El Fouarto and then had to negotiate their way through soft andpotentially treacherous white sand to wrap up the 2010 competition.
KTMriders made a good showing in the final shakeout with Jakub Przygonski of Polandpiloting his KTM into third place overall, followed by his Polish teammate JacekCzachor in fourth. In total, KTM riders took seven of the top ten places in theoverall standings to underline the dominance of the Austrian-made offroadmachines.
Photos NPO Media Service
Overall results
1. Francisco Lopez, Chile, Aprilia 16:59:52
2. Marc Coma, Spain, KTM at11:06
3. Jakub Przygonski, Poland, KTM at 22:29
4. Jacek Czachor,Poland, KTM at 01:29:30
5. David Casteu, France, Sherco at 01:34:22