DAKAR 2022, STAGE 2

The second official stage of the 2022 Dakar rally finished with very different results, but a GasGas still sits atop the standings. Downpours over the last few days in the northern part of Saudi Arabia caused some flooding, such as the wash-out at the Al Artawiyah bivouac for the Marathon stage. As a consequence, the organizers yesterday decided to switch the stage 2 destination to the camp set up at Al Qaisumah. The 338.43-kilometer special stage, however, remained intact, but with the riders’ liaison section to the new bivouac lengthened for a total 453-kilometre trek. Dunes were the main feature of the day: a quarter of the timed special stage was made up of various ridges of dunes. When it was all over, Joan Barreda of the Monster Energy Honda team had the best test time.  Barreda now holds a tally of 28 Dakar Rally stage wins. He is the third most successful motorcycle rider in the rally’s history after Stephane Peterhansel and Cyril Despres (33). The general standings underwent a reshuffle today. Yesterday’s leader Daniel Sanders got lost and finished in 23rd. He now sits third in the provision standings, but his teammate Sam Sunderland is now in first after finishing second on the day. Andrew Short moved up to 16th and Ricky Brabec moved up to 19th.

Joan Barreda: “I’m happy with today, especially after yesterday’s hard day, where several riders got lost. To make up time in the general standings is good, and we have to be aware that there are ten days ahead and that anything can happen. We are physically in good shape and we are looking forward to it. We have worked all year to get here in good shape, so now is the time to get it all out. I am also happy to be the third rider in the history of the Dakar with the most stage victories. I’m proud of the work I’ve done over the years and the mark I’ve left.”

Skyler Howes: “The stage went well for me – I felt pretty comfortable riding on the wet sand. The dunes and the fast, sandy tracks were a lot of fun to ride, so today was really enjoyable, especially after some of the stresses of yesterday. I felt like I rode at a pretty good pace, and I’m happy with my result. It puts me in a good position for stage three, so I hope I can maximize on that. My focus is just to keep putting in solid rides, and make sure that I stay focused on the navigation. Overall, I’m really happy with how today went.”

Andrew Short: “Today went a lot better for me. My speed was good and the terrain was awesome. Very motocross-style in between the wide-open sections and overall it was just a great day on the bike. After refueling I did make a small navigational mistake but otherwise today was much more positive and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

Ricky Brabec: “I don’t think I had a difficult day today, I didn’t really make any mistakes. It was a very cold day. I started quite far back and for me it was like a motocross track, no navigation. I had a lot of lines to follow. The hardest part was riding in the wet sand with the big ruts that had been made by the bikes that had gone out in front. It was a very fast stage. We started to get into the sand dunes and it was a physical day. It’s only the second day… let’s hope we have energy at the end of the rally! We will keep pushing for the next few days because we are really far behind. Yesterday 90% of the competitors got lost with some notes that didn’t make sense and today I had another problem like that. The Dakar is tough.”