Motorcycles and news

Dakar 2007: Stage 7, Zouerat - Atar January 15, 2007

The second stage in Mauritania reduced by one-third of its length due to bad weather conditions preventing helicopters from flying and providing for the safety of the track gave a good overview of the challenges that await pilots in the next few days. In the bikes category, Cyril Despres kept up his efforts to regain ground over Marc Coma in the overall ranking: he did win the stage but still remains 45′ behind the leader in the overall ranking.

Marc Coma is rather unshakeable. Since he’s been in the lead of the overall ranking, he has also been leading the race flanked or not by his rival and countryman Isidre Esteve. The race was supposed to get rough but the Spaniard did not change a thing in his strategy. Whilst the choppers, which are supposed to follow the race from the sky, had given up to the power of the sandstorm, Coma, helped by his fullback stature, again followed his road book without even a hint of a shiver. Despite a visibility close to zero, which pushed the organizers to set the finishing line about 100 kilometers earlier than what was initially planned, the race master managed to find the exact right way. As for Esteve, he remained in ambush.

Cyril Despres had promised to be daring and to attack. Starting in 12th position after all yesterday’s mishaps had to be worth something the Frenchman passed all those who had started before he did, with Ullevalster, Casteu and Sala in his wake and ended up getting the best timing of the day with 2 minutes less than the Norwegian. More importantly, this made him gain back 12 minutes on Coma. With the margin he has over his opponents, the title holder is not worried about the competition. Actually the main concern of the day comes from his own team hit by the loss of a precious teammate. Young Jordi Viladoms, who had won a special stage yesterday for the first time in his career in the Dakar, had to withdraw after a bad fall that left him with a broken arm. Nothing serious however, except for the moral of Catalonia.

Pos. - N° - Name - Make - Time - Variation - Penalty
1 - 001 - COMA (ESP) - KTM - 22:38:34 - 00:00:00
2 - 004 - ESTEVE PUJOL (ESP) - KTM - 22:49:21 - 00:10:47
3 - 008 - CASTEU (FRA) - KTM - 23:15:27 - 00:36:53
4 - 002 - DESPRES (FRA) - KTM - 23:23:30 - 00:44:56
5 - 009 - BLAIS (USA) - KTM - 23:44:45 - 01:06:11
6 - 003 - SALA (ITA) - KTM - 24:08:02 - 01:29:28
7 - 034 - LOPEZ (CHI) - HONDA - 24:09:17 - 01:30:43
8 - 010 - RODRIGUES (POR) - YAMAHA - 24:13:31 - 01:34:57
9 - 006 - ULLEVALSETER (NOR) - KTM - 24:14:40 - 01:36:06
10 - 014 - VERHOEVEN (HOL) - KTM - 24:18:15 - 01:39:41 - 06:00
11 - 020 - MARCHINI (FRA) - YAMAHA - 24:35:46 - 01:57:12
12 - 023 - VINTERS (LET) - KTM - 24:54:48 - 02:16:14 - 03:00
13 - 016 - CZACHOR (POL) - KTM - 25:02:38 - 02:24:04
14 - 103 - KATRINAK (SLQ) - KTM - 25:13:24 - 02:34:50 - 10:00
15 - 085 - BETHYS (FRA) - HONDA - 25:18:12 - 02:39:38 - 03:00
16 - -011 - KNUIMAN (HOL) - HONDA - 25:24:01 - 02:45:27 - 10:00
17 - 012 - FRETIGNE (FRA) - YAMAHA - 25:34:31 - 02:55:57
18 - 019 - PLANET (FRA) - KTM - 25:37:40 - 02:59:06
19 - 024 - STANOVNIK (SLO) - KTM - 26:50:37 - 04:12:03
20 - 116 - VINTERS (LET) -KTM - 27:06:23 - 04:27:49 - 10:00