DAKAR 2010 REST DAY

The 2010 Dakar Rally in South America has reached its halfway point, thus the rest day.

The longest timed special stage of 600km has led to a well-earned rest day. The bikes are down to around 90 riders from 161 starters in Buenos Aires. The quads are down to 14 pilots from 27 starters, cars remain with 55 competitors from 140 starters and 25 trucks remain from 55 starters.

This is all taken from midday UK on 9th January, with a number of competitors still out on the stage from 8th January, who have been given a cut-off time of 6pm today, otherwise they will be removed from the race for safety reasons.

The usual suspects sit at the top of the rankings;

BIKES- 1. Despres, 2. Coma, 3. Rodrigues

Early pacemakers have hit their problems as well as the factory teams, but Cyril Despres continues to keep the pace strong with a 1hr 6min lead over Marc Coma. A number of big crashes have seen David Casteu, Luca Manca, Viladoms and Stanovik retire.

The Brit riders have had a mixed affair with Craig Bounds leading the contingent in 61st place, Paul Carlyle in 79th, Phil Noone from Ireland in 87th and Tamsin Jones still on stage 7 from 8th January having been recorded at km 448 of 600 kms, almost 6hrs behind the leaders with 90 riders having finished the stage at this time, with Tamsin clocked through km 448 at 1pm yesterday, so hopefully will clear the stage in time and get some experience of the rest day.

Unfortunately, Andrew neri was forced to retire on stage 6 and Duncan Teedy on stage 3.


CARS 1. Sainz 2. Al-attiyah 3. Miller

As with the bikes, some early pacemakers have fallen foul to the stresses of the Dakar rally, with Nani Roma in the BMW getting away with a broken wrist, another crash has dashed de Villier's hopes who now supports the other Volkswagen drivers and mechanical problems has seen the early leader, Peterhansel drop down the pack.

Carlos Sainz holds an 11min lead over Nasser Al-attiyah and 22 mins over the next VW driver, Mark Miller. Rumour has it, internal squabbles between the VW drivers is growing as the Dakar moves into its second part.

FRGB

DAKAR NEWS

Stage 1

Casteu’s big bluff
Behind the handlebars of a brand new 450cc, David Casteu has thrown the proverbial cat amongst the pigeons on the first stage of the Dakar. He has taken the lead in the general standings with the day’s best time in front of the two favourites for outright victory, Cyril Despres and Marc Coma.

He is someone always full of surprises; like setting up his own team for instance, with French constructor Sherco, grabbing the opportunity thrown up by the switch over to 450cc for all the competitors in the bike race in the near future. David Casteu, often arbitrator in proceedings between Cyril Despres and Marc Coma, and 2nd in the Dakar in 2007 and 4th in 2009, has chosen to challenge his rivals on a newly designed and less powerful bike.

The road is still long, but this bold decision has already been rewarded on the first special stage of the 2010 edition, in which the rider from Nice scored the day’s best time, 3" ahead of Cyril Despres, and 12” in front of title holder Marc Coma. The gaps are small in light of what still awaits them, but this stage win is symbolically significant for brave David. In the early hours of the morning, a final conversation between Casteu and his mechanic convinced him to try and make an impact between Colon and Cordoba.

Over the 168 kilometres remaining to be covered once the stage had been shortened due to flooding at the start of the special, the eternal outsider was true to his sole guiding principle: “attack, attack, attack”. In the end, Casteu won the 2nd special stage of his career on the Dakar, with the satisfaction of handing out a first defeat to the KTM 690cc riders.

In the series of confrontations between big and small that are on the menu, David Frétigné, on his Yamaha 450cc, was more discrete than Casteu, finishing in 6th position in the day’s standings, almost three minutes off the lead. For the return of Aprilia to the Dakar, Francisco Lopez, also riding a 450cc, took fifth place, 2’42” behind Casteu, but also nearly a minute behind Jordi Viladoms, who finished in fourth.

The Brit riders are underway with Craig Bounds (apparently suffering from some sort of illness) finishing the stage in 38th, Tamsin Jones 145th, Paul Carlisle 141st, Philip Noone 126th, A. Neri 125th.

FRGB