Marc Coma showed again that he is one of the best raid riders of all time by securing this afternoon his third Dakar. A triumph rounded off with the first position of Laia Sanz, in the female class, always under the wing of Jordi Arcarons. In the cars class, Nani Roma was forced to abandon in the ninth stage.
The race started with the uncertainty about the motorbike class, due to the rules’ change that limited the bikes engines capacity to 450cc, and allowed the arrival of many makers that greatly increased competition. However, Marc Coma became again the reference of the group and, in a duel against French Cyril Despres, was able to prevail. Leader of the overall classification since the fourth day, he gradually increased his margin up to 15 minutes and 4 seconds, which allowed him to secure his third victory in the Dakar.
This is the second win he achieves in Buenos Aires, with a total time of 50 hours, 48 minutes and 21 seconds, with his KTM 450 Rally and after 9,000 kilometres covered in 15 days. A success that the Repsol rider adds to the four World Championships he has achieved with the support, since the beginning, of the Spanish energy company, and his two triumphs in the 2006 (Africa) and 2009 (South America) editions of the Dakar.
His victory is rounded off by the success of Laia Sanz, who, being only 25 years old, has completed her first participation in the Dakar with a very positive outcome. Not only did she finished 39th of the nearly 100 riders that were able to finish, but she also did it in front of the females classification. The Repsol rider, ten times Trial World Champion, has faced for the first time the toughness of the most demanding and longest race in the world, brilliantly completing an unmatched track record, endorsed by Repsol’s support in the last years.
Next to her finished Jordi Arcarons, who in his return to active competition has perfectly fulfilled his role as luxury support to the Spanish Champion, suffering for the first time the hardiness of the South American Dakar. A toughness that had among its victims Nani Roma, who, after a fifth position as his best partial result, was forced to end his participation in the ninth day, due to a broken rear differential.
Marc Coma
“It was a very demanding Dakar. It is always so, but this year it was even worst. I value this triumph more highly for the great toughness we suffered. Now is the time to enjoy the success. The key was on things that cannot be seen, as in trying to fail as little as possible. I was also very lucky not to be very badly hurt in my crash. The support of my team was priceless. I could not have done it without them. This is a great reward for all our efforts. I did not want to vindicate myself for anything, I just wanted to do my own race”.
Laia Sanz
“It was incredible. I can barely believe it. To me it is as a dream come true, and even more so with the team I did it, with Jordi [Arcarons], Angels [Rovira], Moi [Gangolells], Paco [Ivars], that worked so hard. It was very tough, specially in the second week, with some moments of suffering, but it was worth it because there were many more good moments than bad ones”.
Jordi Arcarons
“We achieved the objective we set ourselves and even better than we imagined. It is a hard work done by all the team for a whole year and day after day during the race. Laia [Sanz] was magnificent and I thanked her to make me so happy and congratulated her for her success. It was a very hard Dakar, maybe the most difficult of the ones raced in Argentina and Chile. We set as our aim to reach the end each day and there were very complicated days. It was a success of the whole team and the I am proud of the work done by each and everyone of us to let Laia show how great she is”.
Nani Roma
“It was an experience very different to other Dakars, with a completely different approach, but we fought hard and things go as they go. It is sad to be forced to retire in a moment in which I think we were doing things well and we had not make any mistake. It was a hard and difficult year that started oddly and ended even more odd. Unfortunately, the Dakar is like that. The engine worked, but with the broken differential we were not able to cross the dunes. We could not pass with front-wheel drive only and we had to cut the route to reach the end of the stage.”
Results
1. Marc Coma: 51h 25m 00 seg.
2. Cyril Despres, a 15m 04 seg.
3. Hélder Rodrigues, a 1h 40m 20 seg.
4. Francisco López, a 2h 09m 45 seg.
5. Joan Pedrero, a 3h 07m 03 seg.
39. Laia Sanz, a 14h 54m 18 seg.
41. Jordi Arcarons, a 15h 00m 15 seg.
