With the 7th special of the Dakar 2009 over the riders have finally reached Valparaíso and are getting ready for their hard-earned rest day. Tomorrow the Dakar 2009 has a break of one day in Valparaíso, a town on the Chilean coast, and will not restart until next Sunday at 11am.
In the first ever visit by the Dakar to Chile Marc Coma and the Team Repsol KTM arrived in Valparaíso pleased with the development of the race so far. The seventh special was initially programmed to be 419km long, but the organisers made the decision to shorten it to CP1 last night, leaving a total of 243km because of the bad state of the terrain after the heavy rain over the last few days.
Today, Marc Coma completed the special in 2 hours 40 minutes, 3 minutes 57 seconds behind the winner, the Chilean Chaleco López. This second place means that he is in an even stronger position at the top of the leaderboard; the second placed American, Street, was eighth today and lost ten minutes. So, Marc Coma stays in the lead with an advantage of 51 minutes 22 seconds over Street. Third is Fretigne, 52 minutes 31 seconds behind, because today he was fourth, 8 minutes 58 seconds behind Chaleco López.
On the final stage before the rest day the riders crossed the Andes through passes at a height of 3 000 metres, to reach the coastal town of Valparaíso in Chile. The leg began with a zone of dunes and a lot of fesh-fesh. It was once again, a leg with a wide variety of terrain and very technical in the mountain passes. The rain over the last few days left many zones full of mud. At the end of the special the riders had to wrap up well for the liaison of over 300km to cross the frontier and arrive in Valparaíso.
Jordi Viladoms, who is staying close to his teammate Marc Coma leg after leg, set the tenth best time today, and so lost his fourth overall position to the Norwegian Ullevalseter, although only 18 seconds now separate the fourth placed rider from the fifth. Viladoms had a problem with the tread on his rear tyre as it wore out before the end of the special, this made him lose some valuable time.
Gerard Farrés finished 18th today, 31 minutes 56 seconds behind the stage winner. With this result Farrés is now 51st in the overall.
Marc Coma >> Audio
“This was a fun stage at the beginning, sandy and very physical, but afterwards it changed completely and we came across mud and parts that were completely flooded. With the rally bike, which is heavy, the ride was very uncomfortable and you had to go very carefully. I caught Despres around kilometre 60 or 70, and then we had to go together. We had both had small falls in the mud, but nothing important. We had to do what we could because the track was really flooded; we went off the track in the undergrowth, the ride was very complicated.”
Jordi Viladoms >> Audio
“We had planned for a quiet leg, because we knew that there were a lot of holes and a very fast zone. I rode the whole stage very carefully without going over 145km/h on the straights. I lost time because of this, but in spite of everything I had tyre problems towards the end. There were 10km left when the bike began to under perform, so I had to slow down. I miraculously reached the end. If it had been one kilometre longer I would have had to have changed the tread on the rear tyre, something I had to do just after crossing the finishing line so that I could complete the liaison.”
Gerard Farrés >> Audio
“At the beginning today`s leg was along a fast track with a lot of sand and bumpy. The final part had to be taken with a lot of care, because there were a lot of places with a lot of water and it was easy to fall over. Luckily everything went well and the bike worked perfectly. I rode carefully to protect the engine and my wrist, which is hurting more and more. Tomorrow`s day of rest will really help me to recover.”
