Dakar 2003. 7th stage: Ghadames-Ghat

Sainct, Meoni and Roma ahead leading the rally
Marc Coma and Isidre Esteve fall back due to mechanical problems
 Ghat (Libya).- Today Nani Roma has given away five minutes and a half with regard to the leader due to the starting order. Richard Sainct started six minutes after the Spanish rider who had to to lead the way almost all day long. The fact of having to look for the route without having any traces to follow and the worries about the degradation of the rear tyre forced Roma to ride slower than Sainct who finally caught up with him, joining him for the rest of the stage. But tomorrows stage may turn things around again in the classification: Sainct, as winner of todays stage will have to lead the way tomorrow, while Roma will be starting four minutes later. Between them there will be Fabrizio Meoni who arrived today with Roma and is four minutes ahead of him in the overall standings, a time he also ‘grabbed’ him today due to the fact that he was starting later than him as well. Behind them the differences are getting bigger: Cyril Despres is already almost 10 minutes adrift and Alfie Cox  almost 12. ‘Im very happy because Ive been driving the whole stage in front of the pack without any problem. Its very difficult to race like that, because you dont know where the resistance limit of the tyre is, you have to go slower than you would like to. I was surprised not to see Richard -Sainct- taking the advantage to attack Meoni and me because he knew that we had to restrain ourselves in order not to destroy the tyres. Tomorrow Ill start four minutes behind Richard and in addition, the terrain is going to be sandier, so Ill be able to give it all without having to worry about the tyre’, explained Roma afterwards. Marc Coma is learning to look for solutions to avoid the races traps. During the first part of the stage he overtook Carlos de Gavardo and Giovanni Sala, putting himself right behind the best of the race, meaning that after the time compensation he would be among the top positions. But before reaching the first checkpoint he suffered a complex breakdown: the tip of the gear axle of his bike broke and he was left without gear lever. ‘I took out the pliers and used them to hold the rest of the axle so that I was able to change gears manually. Every time I wanted to change gear I had to stop: I used second gear for the dune section and then I stopped and changed to fifth for the road section’. The breakdown caused Coma to fall back to 27th position of the stage and 18th overall, and he lost more than an hour. ‘The most important thing is that Im still in the race, because I could have stayed there. Im here to learn and today has obviously been a day to learn a lot! ‘, said the rider, always thinking positive. Comas main problem is that this is a marathon day and there were no mechanics waiting for him at the finish line, and therefore he will have to wait for the KTM truck that is expected to arrive at dawn.  Isidre Esteve continues suffering all kinds of problems: today the engine of this motorbike broke before the first checkpoint and he had to wait for the truck to get a spare one. This meant loosing several hours, but he managed to stay in the race and pass the third checkpoint 160 kilometres before the finish at night. He is expected to arrive at the Ghat camp after 12 p.m.