The motorcycle category showed that even the penultimate stage, which again took place in the high sand dunes, hides some tricks. Two riders, who had been in the elite ten until now, disappeared from the standings.
Mason Klein didn’t even start after falling in the previous days due to a sore neck, Matthias Walkner had an accident at the 55th kilometer and ended the rally just before the finish.
The Argentinian Kevin Benavides won the stage back, and the organizers subtracted 23 minutes and 10 seconds from the original time because he was helping the injured Walkner. Although Toby Price remained in the lead, he is only 12 seconds ahead of Benavides. Everything will be at stake in the final act!
Although Martin Michek lost 11 and a half minutes, he finished 19th, but due to the withdrawal of the mentioned pilots, he moved up to 11th place overall. He is now five minutes short of the elite ten he dreams of. However, he was very lucky at the end of the stage, because just after crossing the finish line, his bike stopped working.
“In the last third of the stage, the motorcycle started to lose power. Fortunately, it reached the finish line and stopped a few kilometers at the crossing to the bivouac. The injectors went out. Today a Bedouin stood by us. Many thanks to Štefan Svitka for helping Martin tow some 150 kilometers at the crossing.” said Ervín Krajčovič, head of the Orion MRG stable, for which Michek drives.
Trable Buggyry in the 12th stage. The trucks of Jaroslav Valtra and Martin Šoltys lay on their sidesVideo: Buggyry Racing
In the car category, Sébastien Loeb won the sixth stage in a row, setting a new Dakar record. However, Nasir al-Attíja still leads the race, who has a luxury lead of one hour and 23 minutes on Loeb before the final stage on Sunday.
Today, Martin Prokop lost 44 minutes to Loeb, but remains sixth, as Brian Baragwanath, who is seventh in the standings, crashed right at the start.
In the trucks, Martin Macík took the lead at the last split, who at the same time, due to Martin van den Brink’s problems, moved to second place overall.
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