The Repsol rider retired 80 kilometres from the end when he led the race
The 28th edition of the Baja Spain-Aragon finished sooner than expected for Marc Coma when he was on the lead and 80 kilometres from the end. A mechanical failure in his KTM 530 EXC took away all chances to reach the end of the second day of the round held in the Monegros. Coma had enjoyed a perfect race until then, always in the lead and with chances to fight for victory until the last minute.
The Repsol rider finished second in the prologue held on Friday and yesterday took the lead of the overall classification, despite suffering a problem with his bike’s gearshift. In today’s third leg, after leading the classification in the first stage and most of the second, Coma was forced to retire, finishing outside the podium after his successes of the last months in Abu Dhabi and Sardinia.
Marc Coma
“It was a pity. We seemed to have everything under control as we had a good progression during the two days, but a mechanical failure prevented us from begin on the podium in the end. The Rally had not many difficulties, but as it is not a round where we have a lot of experience due to its characteristics, we started without references and just to see how it went. The prologue, which only served to get a good starting position in the first leg, allowed us to start from the top positions and follow the pace of other riders with more experience in this kind of race. Yesterday, a problem with the bike’s gearshift forced us to be more cautious at the end of the leg, but what we did not expect was that today another mechanical failure would force us to retire, just when we had a very good pace and had been consistent during the day. All my team has a lot of experience in rallies raids, so this kind of races are very different from what we are used to. I would be more satisfied if I had finished on the podium, but you learn a lot with this experience. My next competition will probably be in Austria at the beginning of August in order to prepare for the Pharaos Rally”.
