Dakar 2003. 15th stage. Luxor-Abu Rish

Marc Coma third again
Bit by bit hes getting closer to his goal of finishing the race
  Marc Coma repeated today the third place he achieved yesterday in the Rally Dakar. The Spaniard started behind the two leading riders of the overall standing, Richard Sainct and Cyril Despres, and made the whole stage in which the use of GPS was forbidden following the Frenchman.   Coma, whose only goal for this ears race had been to finish the race and learn how to ride with the road book its his second year in the rally -, is just about to make it: after a night liaison which the riders are going to start past one oclock in the morning, they will face the last big stage of the raid. Tomorrow between Abu Rish and Sharm El Sheik the riders will make a total of 828 kilometres, 365 of which will be timed. On Sunday there will be only an exhibition stage.  Marc Coma: Im very happy about the stage today, because I didnt expect to start third and finish third. At km 100 I caught Cyril and then I went on with him. It wasnt a dangerous route today but there was a lot of dust. Slowly but surely Im getting better in navigation, its becoming more natural, after 20 days.   It was a stage with a lot of riding technique and its been more or less difficult. The second half of the stage I stayed a bit behind to avoid Cyrils dust but in the last 30 km I pushed to get a bit closer and make up some time.