Today the first stage of the Rally Dos Sertoes took place, starting from Goiânia with a 45 Km connection before starting the 180 Km special, and another 45 Km connection to the short super special in Santa Helenna, near Río Verde. It was a fast stage which gave the riders their first contact with the rally, much faster than what had been thought. The Repsol riders set out this morning in seventh -Jordi Viladoms- and eighth position -Marc Coma-, after the short prologue disputed last night in Goiania.
It was a stage without major complications, where the participants had to follow a fast main track, the hazards being the furrows caused by the rain. At the beginning it was slower, and together they advanced without incident until when 120 Km into the race Marc Coma’s tyres started to desintegrate. The short length of this first special led to the choice of a softer tyre as a valid option, and both reached the finish line with their rear tyre destroyed. Maybe due to the heat, a faulty batch or the fast pace, but most riders faced the very same problem.Jordi Viladoms, riding with Coma, was also affected by the same problem, and both dropped their pace continuing to ride together until the end of the special, where they were able to change their tyres before the connection and the super special in Santa Helenna. The stage fnally went to Cyril Despres, with Coma sixth, 4 minutes 33 secs behind, and Viladoms eighth, at 6 minutes 33 secs.Tomorrow the second stage, with a total of 480 Km, 222 Km of them timed, will be held between Rio Verde and Aruanã.Marc Coma, 6th at 4’33secsToday we ran the first stage, which was our first contact with this Rally. It was quite an easy and short special, 180 Km, where we riding no problem until kilometre 120, when I noticed I was losing pressure in my rear tyre. The mousse started to desintegrate without warning and I even had a small fall without consequence, because without the mousse it’s as if the tyre was flat and is very hard to control. Over the next few days we’ll have to watch the performance of the tyres here, because it’s only the first day and the special was short.Jordi Viladoms, 8th at 6’33 secsIt was a stage where there was hardly any navigation, as we had to follow the main track most of the time. It was fast and quite slippery, which forced you to anticipate the braking areas or you could easily miss the bend. It was an easy stage, though the fact that it was so fast was maybe the cause for the mousse to desintegrate on us, forcing us to be very careful during the last 30 Km. It happened to most of the riders and we’ll have to find the cause. Marc caught up with me at the start and we rode together. Particularly at the end of the stage, we worked as a team because we both had problems with our tyres, so we chose to ride together, taking it easy, until the end.
