Today’s eleventh stage was all about agility and speed as the route brought the competitors from La Rioja to San Juan. After yesterday’s unlucky results for the Yamalube Yamaha Official Rally Team and the Yamalube Yamaha Junior Rally Team, the two top riders Hélder Rodrigues and Adrien Van Beveren proved their determination today to shake up the general standings in the tail end of the competition by keeping their steady pace. They faced today’s challenges head on and secured fourth and fifth place respectively.
In the last race days of the Dakar Rally all the competitors are pushing to the limit with tiny time differences separating the top-10 leaders; it’s combat on a small scale that decides who ends up in the best position in Rosario. Heat, speed and navigation were on the menu of today’s 431-kilometre special on a changing route over sand, heavy fesh-fesh, gravel and pebbles, completed in unbearable heat.
Yamaha Motorcycles High Resolution Picture Gallery
While the Yamaha riders completed the whole stage in the front-runners group, the last competitors, those who ranked lower than 19th, were stopped during the race (at CP4 and CP2) due to the excessive heat; again, for security reasons another stage of the 2016 Dakar Rally was shortened.
Steadiness proved to be a decisive factor in determining success at the world’s toughest rally and this strategy paid off for Hélder Rodrigues. If the Portuguese was still in pain from his marathon stage’s shoulder injury, the Yamalube Yamaha Official Rally Team’s rider certainly didn’t let it show on today’s stage. He rode a tactically sound eleventh special, preserving his bike whilst still pushing his rivals. He kept the tempo up, firmly determined to prove all his abilities aboard his WR450F Rally. He ended up the day in a solid fourth position and still has plenty of opportunity to climb up more places in the general classification; the gap to his closest rival is less than five minutes.
Adrien Van Beveren, who excelled himself in his first experience with dune racing, followed in Rodrigues’ tracks. Yamaha’s rookie slowed down his pace in order to avoid any navigation mistakes in today’s stage and proved again that his more experienced rivals have nothing on him. Cautious, meticulous and dedicated to crossing the finish line of his first Dakar Rally aboard his WR450F Rally, the junior secured his best score today in signing off with a fifth best time of the stage and he now holds the seventh spot in the general classification.
In the quad category, Alejandro Patronelli was in control over today’s stage and finished in first position, whilst his brother Marcos was held up. The South African, Brian Baragwanath, continued his progress and pushed the Patronelli family hard; he positioned himself between the brothers and signed off the day in second position. However, the Patronellis still have a significant edge over their competitors in the overall timesheet, of one hour and forty one minutes.
Tomorrow, 2016 Dakar’s penultimate day, the competitors will have to complete more than 900 kilometres, half of which are a part of the special section, leading from San Juan to Villa Carlos Paz. The riders will ride over a completely different landscape, on semi-mountainous terrain with a lot of vegetation; a stage made for fans of authentic riding.
