DAKAR Daily – STAGE 4 – Ricky Brabec Clinched the Day With His Flying Honda!
Day 4 Marathon stage marks from Arequipa to Tacna with limited servicing available. This was a stage of 662 kilometres in total but bike category was to run only 509 kilometres of it.
Stage 4 had a different nature of terrain with less sand dunes and instead it had faster conditions to contend with which really suited to Ricky Brabec (USA- Honda). With his flying Honda he won the stage by 6′ 19” and now he became the overall leader by 2′ 19” clear from Pablo Quintanilla (CHL- Husqvarna)
Second fastest was Matthias Walkner (AUT) on the KTM. A good clean run from him for the day which put him 7th overall after the stage. After reaching to the finish line he immediately asked for a doctor and asked for some painkillers. As to the his after stage interview he hurt his right ankle 50 KM before stage finish.
Toby Price (AUS) was the 3rd fastest of the day. His stage 4 performance carried him up to the 3rd overall, he is now 04′ 22” behind the overall classification leader. It turned out to be a good day as he wished at the start.
Pre-stage Comments
Toby Price
“The first marathon stage of Dakar, we are ready as we can be and we will see what the day throws at us today. Yesterday was difficult for everyone and hopefully we can turn around and have a good day Today.”
After-stage Comments
Ricky Brabec
“Yeah, you know I needed it. Yesterday was tough on me and you know I lost a lot of time. Today I really really needed to push with the marathon night and motocross start Tomorrow. It kind of helps me because Tomorrow I can kind of hang back and have the stage under my control. That’s my plan for Tomorrow and I am really happy for Today, getting a stage win and making up a little bit of time.”
Matthias Walkner
“50 kilometers before the end I jumped in one big flat and first I was thinking `okay maybe it’s broken` (referring his foot) but it’s really painful now. We will see how it works for Tomorrow.”
Stage 3 Classification
Overall Classification After Stage 3
