Dakar 2003. 5th stage: El Borma-Ghadames

Nani Roma moves up to second place
Roma makes-up the time he lost yesterday. Coma remains sixth overall and Esteve 21st
  Nani Roma has moved-up to the second overall position, just when the Rally Dakar has reached Libya. The Spanish rider managed to catch Richard Sainct and Fabrizio Meoni, who had both taken the start before him today. The three of them arrived together at the finish line. Thus Roma made up four minutes with regard to the leader, Sainct, who now has only an advantage of 17 seconds. The Spaniard and Meoni, who made up two minutes, are joint second in the overall classification. The stage victory was for the South African rider Alfie Cox, who took advantage of starting from the back being able to follow the other riders tracks.  The stage has been easier than expected. It has been very fast and without many dunes. I arrived at the refuelling 80 kilometres from the finish together with Meoni and Sainct and then it was useless to attack so we just went together to the finish. Since we were riding together, we slowed down the pace and Cox made good use of it and won. But todays position isnt very important, only the time I made up, because we have another race tomorrow and Sainct, Meoni and I are almost tying, explained Roma after his arrival in Ghadames.   Marc Coma showed signs of maturity and slowed down the rhythm when he reached the first dunes, an unknown territory for him because last year in his only previous participation, his bike broke down before reaching Mauritania. When we reached the dunes I waited for Gio (Giovanni Sala). I knew he was right behind me and I wanted to be behind him to see how he did it. Later on he got stuck in the sand and I helped him to take the bike out. Then we went on together and close to the finish he got stuck again. I went on until the finish. I had a good time and I didnt have any problems with the sand, said the Spanish rider who is still being the big revelation of the race: he finished thirteenth today, assuring his sixth overall position, in front of expert official KTM riders, such as Sala, Brucy or De Gavardo.   Isidre Esteve had problems again. I turned back to look for a GPS point, because the checkpoint was supposed to be there, but the organisation had set an additional point and the checkpoint was further ahead. As a consequence I lost 15 minutes going back over the dunes. Its been a shame because when I turned back I was only one kilometre away from the checkpoint. I went very fast during the first part and I overtook more than 10 riders. It was a very good track for twin-cylinders: we were driving at 160 or 170. Esteve finished twenty-fourth and is twenty-first in the overall classification. The Rally enters now Libya, a much harder territory with much longer specials: tomorrow, between Ghadames and Ghat, the riders will have to face 584 timed kilometres…more than what they have done so far. Roma and Meoni are worried about the tyres, after destroying them yesterday in a special of only 200 kilometres length. STAGE CLASSIFICATION1 COX  2.27.542 ROMA + 1′ 073 DESPRES + 1′ 59′ 4 MEONI +  2′ 58 5 SAINCT + 5′ 06’13 COMA + 10′ 0424 ESTEVE + 17′ 02  OVERALL CLASSIFICATION1 SAINCT2 ROMA + 17’3 MEONI + 17′ 4 COX + 3′ 33′ 5 DESPRES + 4′ 23’6 COMA + 21′ 26’21 ESTEVE + 50′ 22′