Photo: dakar.com
Helder Rodrigues claimed a new stage victory at the end of the ninth leg of the 2015 Dakar, after the final routes in the Atacama desert. With nothing more to lose, after the disastrous Stage 8, Rodrigues decided to play all his best cards and launch a full-on attack on the pack. He arrived in Calama almost 4 minutes earlier than the runner-up, his team mate Paulo Goncalves and seven and a half minutes ahead of Marc Coma.
The HRC riders have faced a truckload of problems in stages 7 and 8 after which leading Barreda Bort saw his title chances destroyed by technical difficulties in these marathon stages. His team mates tried their best to help him, but to no avail, and Goncalves is the best shot Honda has for a title this year. In fact, the battle at the top of the ranking is getting fiercer, with Goncalves climbing to around 5 and half minutes behind Coma.
Coma has once more played the safe card and finished Stage 9 third, being more preoccupied to shake off Pablo Quintanilla before dealing with Goncalves. The Chilean rider had his own set of troubles in this stage as he was seventh, more than 23 minutes adrift the leading rider. Pizzolito and Svitko rounded up the Stage 9 top 5, with Toby Price 6th and Barreda 10th. Laia Sanz was not as sparkling as in the previous stage as she lost 43 minutes, finishing 12th.
Stage 10 brings the Dakar back to Argentina, with a 371 km (230 miles) special stage on the way from Calama to Cachi.
Coma has once more played the safe card and finished Stage 9 third, being more preoccupied to shake off Pablo Quintanilla before dealing with Goncalves. The Chilean rider had his own set of troubles in this stage as he was seventh, more than 23 minutes adrift the leading rider. Pizzolito and Svitko rounded up the Stage 9 top 5, with Toby Price 6th and Barreda 10th. Laia Sanz was not as sparkling as in the previous stage as she lost 43 minutes, finishing 12th.
Two riders are slowly distancing ahead
Examining the general ranking after Stage 9, we have Coma leading Goncalves by 5’28”, while Quintanilla is on the podium, but with a gap of almost 27 minutes. Still, his podium can be challenged by Price, who is 31 minutes and a half adrift the leader and he cannot even rule Slovakian Stefan Svitko out of the race.Stage 10 brings the Dakar back to Argentina, with a 371 km (230 miles) special stage on the way from Calama to Cachi.
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