Today the first test of the World Cross-Country Championship finished with the dispute for the last two specials which took the riders back to San Teodoro, the nerve-center of this Rally. Jordi Viladoms gave another superb performance, after running the third and second fastest times in today’s two specials, finishing in an overall second place, behind the Rally leader, Cyril Despres.
This result has also allowed him to climb two positions in the general classification, just eight seconds behind the fourth classified, and three minutes behind “Chaleco” López, third.
The overall outcome of this Rally has been very positive for Viladoms, as aside from the special where he got lost and lost fifteen minutes, and yesterday’s first special, where he had to open up the track, in the rest of the Rally’s specials he has taken three second positions, two thirds, and a fifth position at less than one minute behind the first. The Repsol rider has at all times kept up the pace set by the winner, Despres, even managing to take the third stage. Jordi Viladoms has shown that he is in top form again, and that if he takes things calmly and without rushing, he can be a tough rival thanks to his navigation skills and speed.
Today’s stage consisted first of a 47 kilometre special, very technical and slow, The route led through the mountains, with steep and stony slopes. Apart from the large rocks on today’s track, the riders had to dodge great cracks formed in the mountains by the rain, slowing down the pace considerably. The second 55 kilometre special also ran through the mountains, though the conditions of the track changed too. It was a very pleasant special which ran through a very high mountain range, with changes in gradient, but which was faster.
The next event will be the Rally dos Sertoes, which will be held in Brazil from the 18th to the 28th June, and where Jordi Viladoms and Marc Coma will be present, as long as the injuries the latter suffered in the Dakar Series continue to develop satisfactorily.
Jordi Viladoms
“It went very well and I’m very happy with the rally as a whole, because I only really lost time in two of the nine specials: when I got lost, and in the first special where I had to open up the track. In the rest I was among the first three, except in one where I was fifth just one minute behind the winner, so when nothing went wrong, I did very well. It’s been some time since I felt so well. Today was a complicated and technical day, with a lot of stones, but I did well. It’s very motivating for me to have been so close to Cyril in almost all the specials.”
Jordi Duran, Team Manager
“To be honest we could say that the rally went quite well, because taking everything into account, Jordi Viladoms has made some great improvement throughout the race, in spite of the problem he had in one of the specials, where he lost fifteen minutes. But overall it’s been quite positive. The negative side is Gerard Farrés’ bad luck when he had a head-on crash with another rider, because it was not his fault but the other rider’s, who was lost and was riding in the opposite direction. I think Gerard [Farrés] was doing a good race. It’s a good rally to learn navigation skills, because there are a lot of turns, very close together. It’s true that in this rally there is no GPS, but the roadbook is much more difficult to follow than in Africa, because the tracks are much smaller and meet many others, which demands close attention and skillful use of the roadbook. In the end Jordi [Viladoms] was second again, which shows that he is back in his stride and in good shape. Let’s hope he keeps it up in Brazil and can fight for the podium.”
