Coma still leads as Despres wins stage

From KTM Racing

KTM factory riders Marc Coma (Spain) and Cyril Despres (France) continued on Sunday to show why they are the world's best rally riders with Despres winning Stage Eight of the Dakar 2009 in front of Coma, who continues to retain a commanding lead.

In fighting form after the rest day, the stage victory went to Despres 1:49 ahead of Coma with local hero Francisco Lopez (KTM) third (at 2:56). David Frétigné (Yamaha), Jonah Street (KTM) and Pal Anders Ullevalseter (KTM) all ran into problems allowing Despres to move up two places to third overall. He is now less than 30 minutes from second-placed Frétigné in the overall standings.

Coma continues to maintain an impressive lead of 1:06:28 over Frétigné. He also has a 1:33:34 over Despres.

Alain Duclos (KTM) had his best day of the rally so far, finishing fourth (at 12:39) with Jordi Viladoms fifth (at 13:12).

"The man who makes the modification to the road book, Jean-Pierre Fontenay said in his notes that today was more rally and than rally-raid and he wasn't joking," Despres said. "We must have taken 2000 corners. We were riding on something like a smooth white laterite piste and there wasn't much grip. I tried to stay standing up the whole time, shifting my weight back when braking and then moving it to the middle when accelerating. Towards the end Francisco really attacked and that suit me fine as I wanted to put as much time between me and the guys behind me. Moving up to third has really given me a boost."

"It was technical today like an Enduro," Coma said. "There wasn't much grip and it was difficult to maintain a good pace without out-braking yourself. Although it was challenging it was fun to ride. As was predicted I caught up Lopez and Cyril caught me and we crossed the line pretty much together."

Riders on Monday tackle a special of 449km over a total distance of 537km that takes them from La Serena to Copiapo, during which they will encounter the notorious Atacama Desert, said to be the world's driest. This combination of dunes and rocks will be a test of the best during which it will be required for even the leaders to exercise their skills and conserve their energy to tackle long stretches of dunes at the conclusion of the ride.

Provisional results of eighth stage
1. Cyril Despres, France, KTM
2. Marc Coma, Spain, KTM
3. Francisco Lopez, Chile, KTM
4. Alain Duclos, France, KTM
5. Jordi Viladoms, Spain, KTM
6. David Fretigne, France, Yamaha
7. Gerard Farres Guell, Spain, KTM
8. David Casteu, France, KTM
9. Juan Pedrero Garcia, Spain, KTM
10. Pal Anders Ullevalseter, Norway, KTM

Provisional overall standings
1. Marc Coma, Spain, KTM
2. David Fretigne, France, Yamaha
3. Cyril Despres, France, KTM
4. Jonah Street, USA, KTM
5 Pal Anders Ullevalseter, Norway, KTM
6. Jordi Viladoms, Spain, KTM
7. Francisco Lopez, Chile, KTM
8. Helder Rodrigues, Portugal, KTM
9. David Casteu, France, KTM
10. Frans Verhofen, Netherlands, KTM