Coma takes narrow Dakar lead

From KTM Racing

Marc Coma of Spain took line honors in Stage Four of the Dakar Rally on Wednesday to even up the reckoning with arch rival and fellow KTM factory rider, French-born Cyril Despres. Coma also takes control of the overall standings by a mere two seconds in what is shaping up to be a battle royal between the two giants of the sport. Coma said it had been "a very important day" for him, even if a relatively short special.

"It was difficult to open the way," he explained. "I'm happy and I felt great. I hope it stays like that right until the end. The general standings don't matter for the moment. The most important thing will be the last day. It's essential to have a good pace and avoid making mistakes. Now we'll have to deal with two very difficult stages."

Coma registered the best provisional time of the day by just 16 seconds over Despres, who had stuck closely to his rival throughout the day's special. Despres was never more than 32 seconds behind and constantly shaved a second here and there as the day progressed as the stage took the riders from San Salvador de Jujuy in Argentina over the Andes and down into Calama on the Chilean side of the border. Riders absolved 554km on the road and a special of 207km and were rewarded at the end of the day with their first look at the famed Atacama Desert, the driest region on the planet.

The rivalry between the two KTM factory riders is legendary and this Dakar is no exception. Despres won the first two stages and Coma the second two but in reality there is nothing between them as they tackle the tricky desert dunes of Chile.

The KTM riders were closely shadowed on Wednesday by Francisco (Chaleco) Lopez, who would have wanted to enter his home country in the lead. He was two minutes behind but now has a deficit of more than 20 minutes in the general standings as the two leaders begin to put serious distance between themselves and the rest of the field. Despres already owns three Dakar trophies, Coma has two to his credit and neither will concede an inch until after they get back to Buenos Aires on Jan. 16.

"For this type of terrain that's so different you need to change the way your brain's wired," Despres said. "There's no more hard ground, just desert, off-track riding and surfaces that break up. It was a good start to the desert stages. Today, Marc Coma rode a great stage. It's a superb battle with Marc. Today again we opened up a little more of a gap on the others."
 
Ruben Faria, Despres' co-rider experienced difficulties between waypoint two and four and crossed the line in 22nd place and dropped down the order in the generals from third to seventh place.

Wednesday was the day that the Dakar 'caravan' crossed the Andes at an altitude of 4800m via the Paso de Jama so competitors had to contend with the thin air as well as tough riding conditions, even if the special was only half the distance of Tuesday's Stage Three. Organizers had made provision for possible negative effects of the altitude on the competitors and some 30 vehicles were positioned along the course to assist anyone with altitude-related difficulties. Stage Four was also the first stage where bikes, cars and trucks in the rally all followed the same route.

The teams now have to muster their physical and mental strength to apply themselves to attacking the soft and shifting sands of the Chilean desert, the mighty Atacama. Riders still have two very testing days on the bikes before the one and only rest day on Saturday in this marathon event.

Stage Five, another very challenging ride allows them a mere 36km on the road and 423 grueling kilometers of mixed terrain, including rocky track and dunes. The stage finishes at Iquique on the Pacific coast when they make a heart-stopping descent at an average gradient of 32 percent. On Friday they continue north through the sand and dunes to a point near the border with Peru, which is also new territory for the rally this year.

Stage 4 Results
1. Marc Coma, Spain, KTM, 2:04:00
2. Cyril Despres, Andorra, at 00:16
3. Francisco Chaleco Lopez, Chile, Aprilia, at 2:05
4. Olivier Pain, France, Yamaha, at 6:20
5. Helder Rodriguez, Portugal, Yamaha, at 6:55
6. Juan Pedrero, Spain, KTM at 7:15

General Standings after Stage 4
1. Marc Coma, Spain, KTM 11:43:12
2. Cyril Despres, Andorra, at 00:02
3. Francisco (Chaleco) Lopez, Chile, Aprilia, at 20:12
4. Paolo Goncalves, Portugal, BMW, 25:40
5. Helder Rodriguez, Portugal, Yamaha, at 26:02
6. Juan Pedrero, Spain, KTM at 26:23
7. Ruben Faria, Portugal, KTM at 27:07