Street shines on fifth stage

From KTM Racing

Young American Jonah Street crowned an impressive couple of days with his first Dakar stage win on Wednesday, 5:53 ahead of Frans Verhoeven and 7:34 in front of the Chilean Francisco Lopez.

Running into more tire problems, the first KTM factory rider home was Cyril Despres (eighth at 14:46) just ahead of Marc Coma (ninth at 15:45) with Jordi Viladoms just behind them at 26:30.

Despite losing time on the stage to the second placed man, Coma maintains his overall lead, 27:12 ahead of Street with David Fretigne third (at 39:09). Viladoms is fifth (at 1:06:42) with Despres 10th (at 1:36:08).

"I was riding very slowly in the stony ground but I still got a puncture just 60km after the start," Coma said. "Jordi started 10 minutes behind me this morning, and I knew he would be along soon, so I took my wheel out and starting repairing it while I waited. When he came along we quickly swapped wheels and off I went again. In all I lost no more than 12 minutes or so.

"Then just before the dunes at the end I lost the rear brake and that made tackling them a bit difficult and cost me a little more time."

Riders travel from San Rafael to Mendoza in the next stage with a 395km special kicking off with 60km of dunes spiked in the second part with a wide ford crossing. This stage brushes the foothills of the Andes mountain range.

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

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