A navigational error by Marc Coma on the gruelling loop type special around Copiapo, in the heart of the Atacama desert, made things difficult for the Team Repsol KTM rider, But with a little patience, and knowing that he had lost the leg, he got through the day and in the end only lost 12 minutes to his teammate Jordi Viladoms, the winner of today`s leg, the tenth in the Dakar 2009. Coma, who was riding alongside Despres, took a track in the wrong direction and had to take the always difficult decision to turn back, retrace their steps and find the right way.
Once he was on the right track Coma, and Després, set a fast pace until they caught the group with Viladoms, and so the two Team Repsol KTM riders entered the final part of the special together. So a stage victory for Jordi Viladoms, and seventh position for Marc Coma, who in spite of a hard day, finished ahead of his immediate rival, the Frenchman Fretigne, who was fifteenth. The Repsol rider`s lead in the overall classification is now 1 hour 24 minutes.
Jordi Viladoms, with today`s excellent victory and the time he has made up, is in a reinforced fourth position in the overall, and is now closer to the second and third placed riders. His teammate Gerard Farrés, set the twentieth best time today, and although he is physically weakening, the Repsol rider is maintaining his pace on the specials and is climbing up the leaderboard. After today he is thirty-fourth.
In theory today was going to see the longest and most difficult special of the whole rally, a 666 kilometre loop in Copiapó. However after a check this morning the organisers decided to shorten the special by 200km, and so in the end it was reduced to 476km. The tenth special raised the level of difficulty very high: more kilometres, very high temperatures, a route at an altitude of over 3 000 metres, and once again sections with a lot of stones before reaching the final stretch with dunes. And a lot of navigation which forced the riders to pay special attention to the roadbook.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, the caravan will go towards Fiambalá, returning to Argentina. At 19:00 the ASO informed all participants that owing to the weather conditions that delayed the start of today`s special, and the fact that all the participants have a very specific slot to cross the frontier between Chile and Argentina during the liaison afterwards, the special has been cancelled. And so the race will become a connection leg that takes the riders to Fiambalá via the mountain pass through the Andes.
Marc Coma >> Audio
“This was a difficult leg. In the morning the start was delayed practically three hours because of fog, and that meant that we started at almost ten o`clock, with the sun very high and heat right from the start. Moreover, the high sun made it difficult to see in the dunes. We began calmly because we knew it was a very long stage and that it would be hard on the tyres so we tried to take care of the bike. After that Despres and myself interpreted a note in the modifications incorrectly and we lost a little time, nothing too serious. We got back on track with just a few minutes lost. In the end we were able to recover some time, although on the final stretch the navigation got hard again, and it was difficult finding one of the control points. We reached the finish which is the important thing on a day like today, and I want to congratulate Jordi [Viladoms] on his victory, which I think is more than deserved.”
Jordi Viladoms >> Audio
“This was a very strange and very complicated leg. I started towards the back and at the beginning I had no problems, arriving at the refuelling though I found that I had caught the leaders and that I had a good pace. But I reached the final refuelling and Marc [Coma] had not. Right then all my alarms sounded and I began to suffer. Although he came along a short time later, together with Cyril [Despres] and Chaleco [López], who had got themselves lost, we all then rode together to the finish. When it all seemed over we could not get the final arrow on the GPS showing the way to the final Way Point, and we got lost again. We went round in circles and we got very stressed as the dunes were very soft and we were getting stuck, losing sight of each other. Luckily I found Marc again and I followed him to the finish. That is when I realised that I had won the leg, something incredible.”
Gerard Farrés >> Audio
“Today`s leg was twice as difficult. Firstly because of the special, which in itself was very tough; very long and with big difficulties in the navigation; and secondly because of the pain in my wrist, something that made the day seem much longer. On the previous days I had been able to maintain a normal pace, but today I was not able to. My objective today was to finish the best I could, and I battled a lot today to do so. I managed to finish and here I am. Moreover, I learnt a lot about navigation as it was a very complicated stage, with a lot of dunes, and so I am doubly happy to have finished.”
