Aussie Toby Price’s dream of a second Dakar Rally win seems shattered after losing 49 minutes in the Argentinian dunes and river beds on stage 10.
Toby was lost with five other leading riders, which totally changes the complexion of the rally. He now shuffles down the order to fifth position.
As in 2016 when he won, Toby had been holding back to attack in the second week.
Now that his dream of a second victory seems shattered he has nothing to lose, so we can expect to see him attack for at least a stage win or two for the rest of this final week of the rally.
Watch this video of Toby and Red Bull KTM teammate Antoine Meo of France who were both lost today.
Their teammate Matthias Walkner left later and avoided the navigation problems of the lead riders to win the stage and leapfrog to the top of the standings.
He has a 39-minute lead over Joan Barreda Bort on a Honda with Toby 50 minutes adrift.
Crazy things can happen in Dakar, so there is still a chance of Toby.
KTM is chasing its 17th consecutive win and, until this stage, looked like being beaten by Yamaha and Honda.
Meanwhile, Queenslander Rodney Faggotter is in 20th position overall.
Rod rides highThat’s an excellent effort from Rod who is the “water carrier” for the Yamalube official Yamaha rally team, so he has to frequently stop to help his teammates.
His previous best finishing position was 14 in the 2013 rally. Mechanical problems prevented him finishing in his two other Dakar entries in 2012 and 2017.
Sydney’s Scott Britnell is also doing well in his first Dakar, finishing today’s stage in 57th and 67th overall.
Click here to check out the riders’ half-way progress and the stage 1-6 videos.
Stage 7 video
Stage 8 video
Stage 9 was cancelled.