He has now an advantage of eight minutes in the overall standings. Esteve and Coma finish the stage with no news.
The Mauritanian desert did justice to its traditional hardness at the eighth stage held today, with a 355 kilometres special between Atar and Tidjikja. After yesterdays marathon stage, with riders arriving at the Atar camp during the whole night, the participants had to face today a shorter stage, but with tremendous difficulties with regard to orientation and navigation. Joan Roma made a perfect stage, winning the special and getting an advantage of eight minutes over Richard Sainct, second in the overall standings.
The track was more difficult, slower and more technical, and the riders were not able to reach the high top speeds of yesterday. The hardest part was basically to locate the correct route, and that caused several riders to have problems. The first one to get lost was Cyril Despres, who was leading the race. He lost more than an hour with regard to Roma, thus loosing his options for the victory. Richard Sainct was also struck by problems. At kilometre 145 he got stuck in the sand and was only able to continue with the help of Brucy.
Both riders caught-up with Joan Roma and the three of them reached the finish after an extremely prudent stage, long ahead of Fabrizio Meoni and Alfie Cox, who crashed. Thanks to this result, Roma has regained the leadership with an important advantage. Now they have to get ready for tomorrows stage with the longest special of the rally: 736 kilometres.
Isidre Esteve, who arrived at the Atar camp at two oclock in the morning after managing to repair his motorcycle, made an excellent stage, setting the fourth fastest time. Marc Coma was eight. In the overall standings, Coma is thirteenth and Esteve thirty-seventh.
Joan Roma: “Im very happy with the development of todays stage. I made up the differences after starting behind Sainct and Brucy, and managed to be faster than them at the end of the stage without even having to take risks. On the other hand, I also benefited from the fact that the whole group behind me got lost. This is a marathon stage and therefore we have no mechanics waiting for us at the finish. It was important not to make the machines suffer too much and not to take any risks that may be harmful for us in these two stages.
There is still a lot of rally left, so we should not rejoice yet. A lot of things may still happen. However, we can say that everything is working well for the moment “.
Isidre Esteve: “After yesterdays stage, where I had mechanical problems, we were able to repair everything quicker than expected and although Im far back in the standings, I gave it all today. I navigated correctly and the reward for it was a good position after the stage. Tomorrow Ill take the start close to Nani and both Marc and I will be able to support him as much as possible. The team is grouped again and it will be an advantage for all of us”.
Marc Coma: “I started the stage very well, riding with the leading group. Its a shame that the whole group got lost. Once we found the right way to follow, Meoni, Cox and I set a faster pace. I didnt want too loose too much time because my aim is to be in the front at the stages to be able to help Nani”.
Stage classification
1. Roma (Repsol KTM) 5.38.07
2. Brucy (KTM) + 6.02
3. Sainct (KTM) + 7.58
4. Esteve (Repsol KTM) + 24.51
8. Coma (Repsol KTM) + 37.31
Overall classification
1. Roma (Repsol KTM)
2. Sainct (Repsol KTM) + 8.16
3. Brucy (KTM) + 14.25
13. Coma (Repsol KTM) + 2.13.14
37. Esteve (Repsol KTM) + 10.31.05
Today´s stage
Atar-Tidjikja. Liaison: 34 Kms. Special: 355 Km. Total: 389 Km.
And tomorrow….
Tidjikja-Nema. Liaison: 3 Kms. Special: 736 Km. Total: 739 Km.
