Today the first stage of the UAE Desert Challenge 2008 in Dubai took place, a special 281 kilometres long that started in Abu Dhabi and finished in Moreeb, a town to the south of the capital, and the actual base for the rally over the next three days. Marc Coma was able to decide where he started today after finishing 4th in yesterday`s stage: he chose 20th place and he set the second best time of the day, 1 minute and 34 seconds behind the Frenchman Cyril Despres. The Repsol rider had some problems with his tyres owing to the high speeds and temperatures, which wore down faster than expected, before the end of the special and consequently he lost a little time.
For Jordi Viladoms and Gerard Farrés, today was a special day, the former was back in a race that he had to retire from last year in bitter circumstances, and for the latter it was his debut in this competition. On a fast special with few dunes Farrés was able to take advantage of the situation to set a good pace and to get used to the race conditions. A more cautious Viladoms went out to regain good sensations on this terrain little by little, after returning to racing after an injury in the summer kept him at home.
The stage was similar to last year`s, with fast tracks for a large part of the special, that is until the final section where the first dunes appeared. However, instead of hardly marked untouched tracks like those seen last year, the Repsol riders found wide roads that some machines had recently cleared. This meant that there was much more dust, so the decision to start further back had two sides to it.
Tomorrow sees the second stage, 296km long, where sand and sand dunes will certainly appear.
Marc Coma
“The first day was a very fast stage, with a lot of dust on the first part. Then we began to find the first dunes and the first off-track parts. Towards the end I had some problems with the “mousse” on the rear tyre, it broke up and that made me lose a little time on the last part of the special. Today was nothing more than a taste of what is waiting for us over the next few days. The first stage is always from Abu-Dhabi towards the south, to the inland desert, and it is very good for recovering your sensations on this type of land. I am quite pleased since we are finally doing a desert race.”
Jordi Viladoms
“It took me some time to catch the pace. Being the first day I tried to find a position that feels comfortable, recovering my confidence little by little among the dunes since it was here where I had an accident last year. But I am pleased, since the sensations were good and that is the important thing. Now we have to make progress day after day and to gain more confidence. Today’s stage had a lot of track riding, quite fast, instead of the dunes that we had last year. Yesterday’s prologue went well, as it allowed us to choose a good starting position, but maybe we chose to start too far down since there was more dust than we thought there would be, and that harmed my chances a little at the beginning.”
Gerard Farrés
“At the beginning, as it is my first participation in Dubai, I was a little nervous about what we might come across. But luckily we did not find too many difficulties. It was a fast stage without too many dunes, where the most complicated thing for me was to control the roadbook and the GPS at the same time, since we can have the GPS on the whole time in this race. The fact that I had to control two things at the same time is what made it more difficult. I rode calmly, the motorbike worked well and we will carry on paying attention to everything so that we learn all we can, because that is what we have come to do.”
