The sixth stage of the Dakar 2022 has been especially short for motorcycle and quad riders. The race was neutralized at kilometer 101 due to the poor condition of the track. The ruts left by cars, ‘Side by Side’ and trucks the day before added to the rain that fell in the area to form a truly dangerous terrain. Sanders claimed victory under these conditions. The current champion of quads, Manuel Andújar, has left the competition after suffering an accident. ‘Orly’ Terranova wins the special in cars, while Nasser Al-Attiyah is more leader after the error of Sébastien Loeb.
Daniel sanders he was not happy with the neutralization of the stage. His pace was being unbeatable and the pilot claimed to feel comfortable in the race. The prospect of continuing to cut time from his rivals made the runner want to complete the day: «It was not a problem for me, I have faced conditions like this before., for example, in Morocco this winter. Unfortunately, many pilots complained at the refreshment station. I wanted to continue. I know I’m fast, especially on stony ground. It is a type of surface that I know well thanks to my past experience in enduro and the work I have done throughout the season with the bike, which gives me a lot of confidence on terrain like this. I have worked hard and am eager to show others that the effort has been worth it».
Adrien van beveren He faces the rest day third in the general classification, just under six minutes behind Sunderland. The Frenchman explained the risks that the runners had encountered: «I am lucky to arrive safely from this special, which has been especially dangerous. The ‘roadbook’ has been conceived to indicate the dangers that a track presents. The problem is that we have found that the track was completely razed and was 300 meters wide after the passage of cars and trucks yesterday. The dangers marked sometimes you did not see them because you were 100 meters away and vice versa. I have endured as I could and gave the best of myself. I’ve made good times and tried to be consistent. We are in the fight, which is great. I am satisfied with the first week of the Dakar. Yesterday’s stage was not so good for me, but that is part of the race and it happens to all of us.
‘Orly’ Newfoundland He claimed victory in today’s special, the seventh of his career and the first in Saudi Arabia. Upon reaching the finish line, he highlighted the toughness of the stage and spoke of his expectations for the remainder of the race: «It was a difficult stage because there were motorcycle tracks, some wrong. For this reason we have had to stay very focused. It was not easy to overtake other cars because as the first half was fast, everyone was riding at a light pace. In the neutralization our feeling is that we were doing a good job so in the second half we continued to attack. The sand was very soft so the driving was not easy. Upon reaching the finish line, we have won the stage, which is always a joy. The car is fantastic and the idea is to keep attacking.
Nasser Al-Attiyah keep making steady progress on this Dakar. He enters the rest day more than 50 minutes ahead of his two immediate pursuers, Yazeed Al-Rajhi of Saudi Arabia and Sébastien Loeb of France: “We are very happy to be here. We have attacked from the beginning and we have seen that several drivers have made mistakes. I’m happy to have reached the rest day with such an advantage. We’re doing pretty well. I have seen that Sébastien has gone the wrong way… But that’s not my problem. Our goal is to manage our advantage in the best possible way next week without taking risks. Still, we have to maintain a strong rhythm, because when we ride too relaxed we end up making mistakes.
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Sebastien loeb watch your chances of clinching the ultimate victory shrink a bit more. After a navigation failure, he fell to third place overall after being overtaken by Al-Rajhi: «We have lost a good opportunity to close the gap today. The navigation errors that we have made have lost us a lot of time. We have followed the tracks of the motorcycles at kilometer 95, when we knew they had been stranded yesterday, and we have made our mistake. We have tried to minimize the damage to the dunes at the end, but still we have lost about an additional quarter of an hour on Nasser. We started to get a little too far away. The truth is that I would have liked to get to the rest day in a different situation. The strategy for us is not going to change, we have to keep fighting hard: we see that once in the arena we are faster than Nasser. So we hope there is a lot of sand to be able to reverse the trend.
Lucio Alvarez continues in the ‘top 5’ of the general classification after having achieved 32nd place in today’s special. Despite being a good result, the Argentine rider was somewhat disappointed at the end of the day: «Today there was a very complicated navigation area around kilometer 95 where there was a very closed river and we had to find the exit. The notes were not very clear. When we got to the river, Sébastien Loeb and Henk Lategan were also looking for the exit and we lost a lot of time. To top it off we puncture a wheel. Then there were no more complications, but we lost too much time on that episode. Making a realistic analysis of the situation, we are fourth overall after half the rally and that is not bad. He would have signed before leaving because he was fourth on the rest day, although after seeing how the days have gone today it has been a bit disappointing».