Despres wins Morocco rally

From KTM Racing

KTM factory rider Cyril Despres has emerged the conqueror of the Rally of Morocco while Marc Coma finished third overall despite time penalties of 36 minutes to register a huge success for what was the first real test for the new KTM 450 Rally Replica, the bike that the KTM factory riders will take to the Dakar 2011. 
       
Despres went out as leader on the final day with a mass start and where riders completed 4x40km loops with plenty of overtaking possibilities on off track, large expanses of sand and some dunes. He successfully held off his two main rivals Coma and Portuguese Yamaha rider Helder Rodrigues to snatch the overall lead.

The two KTM factory riders opened their bid in Stage One, making short work of the mountainous, winding and rocky tracks and the dunes. They hit the front and that is where they stayed. At the end of the first day, which he described as "a beautiful warm-up", it was a triumph for Despres, racing his first rally in six months after taking a break from the action for the arrival of his new daughter.

Organizers had introduced some special navigational challenges for the 2010 edition where competitors had to locate certain points on the course with a margin of error of 400 meters. It was this that cost Coma a 30-minute penalty on Stage Two when after he finished ahead of Despres for another 1-2 KTM stage victory, he was handed down a late time penalty by the jury that knocked him down to fourth overall, giving Cyril the clear edge on the overall lead.

Wednesday vaulted Coma back into the limelight with another stage victory and he was able to put the disappointment behind him on a day where Despres experienced some difficulties, even if he was able to hang on to the overall lead.

"I lost the track 100m out of the start," Despres said. He said there was also a problem with visibility because of rain. "I decided to follow Helder Rodrigues. After the heat of the first day, the dunes yesterday, we had mud today. Great testing grounds for our new KTM 450," he said.

Thursday was another triumph for Coma, who won the stage and charged on to move up to third in the overalls after carving valuable time off his deficit to trail by just seven minutes. Meanwhile a navigational error at the beginning of the second loop cost Despres valuable time and left him back at sixth in the Stage Four results, even if he did still have a narrow hold on the overall rankings.

Despres grasped the challenge at the start of the penultimate stage on Friday and went out to increase his overall lead to almost 10 minutes on second placed Rodrigues. He also managed to put more than 15 minutes between himself and Coma, which put him in good shape for the final charge on Saturday.

"I wasn't too happy with myself for letting my guard drop yesterday and so started this morning determined to make amends," Despres explained. "I left the line in sixth place, but behind five riders who were attacking hard. At about kilometer 40 I came across Olivier Pain who was having trouble with his bike, so that was one rider whose dust I didn't have to worry about. Then at the refueling point I saw that I had taken back about one minute 30 seconds and that allowed me to back off a little. By the end of the special I had managed to pull back a small but significant amount of time on Rodrigues and Coma."