Dakar 2004. Stage 14

Great performance of Roma increasing his overall advantage
The Repsol rider overcomes a bad start and has extended his advantage over Richard Sainct by two minutes. Esteve finishes without news and Coma retires
 Very intense stage today at the Dakar between Ayoun el Atrous and Tidjikja, in Mauritania, with a 548 kilometres special stage. Marc Coma did not take the start because he didn’t feel capable to rejoin the race after the heavy crash he suffered yesterday.Meanwhile Joan Roma played the leading role of the day in many aspects. In the first part of the special he made a navigation mistake loosing several minutes. He also crashed, but with an efficient riding technique he managed to make up all the time lost to Richard Sainct, who also made some navigation mistakes, and even managed to increase his advantage over the French rider by two minutes. Isidre Esteve got lost as well, but he managed to get to the finish.In the overall motorbike standings, Roma has now an advantage of 9.40 over his main rival and he has reached Tidjikja in good conditions. There will be no mechanical assistance today because it is a marathon stage. Today, the dunes have been the protagonists, and tomorrow, with a 579 kilometres special, the riders will have to face what will probably be the last big challenge before the finish in Dakar.Joan Roma: ‘Our main target today was to reach Tidjikja in good conditions because we have no mechanical assistance and it was vital to reach the finish with the bike in one piece. It’s been a difficult route, complicated and with several problems. I made a navigation mistake at the beginning, which I fortunately was able to make up. If we keep on working like this we’ll be able to get a good result and I’m happy with today’s stage. However I prefer to think that Dakar is still far away and focus only on each day’.Isidre Esteve: ‘Starting from behind, the stage has been complicated because a group of riders in front of me got lost before reaching CP1 and the helicopter was following them. I doubted a lot and I lost about twenty-five minutes because we left the main route for about thirty kilometres in order to get to CP1. From then on, knowing that everything was working as expected in the head of the race, I was able to ride at ease until the finish’.Marc Coma: ‘Yesterday I suffered a strong crash at kilometre 200. I went over a bump that wasn’t indicated in the road book. I hit the floor and the bike hit me. I was unconscious for some time and although I can remember reaching the finish I suffered a lot. I tried to continue until the end and take the start today, but I just couldn’t. It is no serious injury, but I didn’t feel well and my head is still hurting. It’s a shame to leave the team because until now each of us was making his little contribution. I think that we’ll continue doing a good job until the end.’