Dakar 2004. Stage 16

Five minutes advantage for Roma before the last stage of the Dakar
Second in today’s stage, Nani faces the last special of the race with prudence and calm
Joan Roma and the Team Repsol KTM are only one stage away from the absolute victory of the Dakar 2004. Roma and Esteve, who suffered a light fall, completed the penultimate stage of the rally. It wasn’t a very long stage (192 kilometres), but a complicated one, because it was pure navigation, without the help of the GPS and a combination of dunes, grass and vegetation.Roma started having an advantage of seven minutes over his main rival Richard Sainct. The French rider gave it all and managed to reduce the gap by two minutes. But Nani was already counting on that. He didn’t want to take part in the game, he knew that there was little to win but a lot to loose and he made his own race. Despite a little navigation mistake, which he quickly corrected, he finished the stage with no news, riding most of the time with Fabrizio Meoni. He has only 27 kilometres left to reach the podium and despite the supposed easiness of the route, anything may happen and therefore he has to be careful until the final chequered flag.Tomorrow, the riders will start in reverse order. Esteve will take the start before Roma and he will wait for him to ride together until the finish. Sainct will start from behind and he will probably make up more time, but the Repsol rider’s margin is more than enough to face the last stage with optimism.Joan Roma: ‘The stage has been a bit stressing due to the navigation difficulties and the absence of the GPS, but I arrived in good conditions and I’m very happy. Our job hasn’t finished yet, because there are 27 kilometres left to run, but I hope that everything will work out fine. I think that the whole team deserves this because we have made great teamwork. I want to say thank you for the support received from Jordi, Isidre, Marc, the mechanics and all the members of the team. It is also a very happy day for me because I’m with my family. They came over to see the end of the race’.Isidre Esteve: ‘I thought that today’s stage would be easier but it wasn’t. Two hundred kilometres of pure riding technique where I made a little mistake and fell. At the time controls I asked if Nani had passed and as they where answering yes I rode comfortably until the finish. With regard to the rally, I think that we started well, fighting and winning stages. But the bike broke down and I was morally down. From that moment on the team became the most important, working for Nani’s victory. I spent three very hard days and arriving here with this result in the standings and with the possibility to win makes me feel very happy’.Marc Coma: ‘The aim of the team was the victory and we’re very close to it. The whole planning of the team was focussed on Nani’s victory, although the plan didn’t include my retirement. Anyway, I think that until the moment I retired, I contributed to the team’s work. This will serve as an experience for the next years. In addition, entering Senegal has been quite hard, because I lost all my documents in the crash and it’s been really difficult to cross the border’.Jordi Arcarons: ‘After so many stages, this was a very difficult one although it didn’t seem to be. It was a short stage and Richard Sainct gave it all. Nani knew that he wouldn’t be able to catch-up with him and a single mistake would have been hard to make-up. We had no news about him until the end of the special and we’re happy because a five-minute margin allows us to take the start tomorrow with certain ease. It is true that anything can happen, but it’s almost impossible to recover five minutes in such a short distance ‘.