(From Saudi Arabia) Motorcycles are the great attraction of the 45th edition of the dakar rally which for the fourth year in a row is being held in Saudi Arabia. This Saturday in stage 13 that joined Shaybah with Al-Hofuf, the Argentine kevin benavides (KTM) visited himself as a hero as he helped his teammate Matthias Walkner who suffered a fall. That lost time was returned to the Salteño once he arrived at the camp. With this adjustment, the man from Salta won the partial and was second in the general classification.
The Argentines finished the first week of the Dakar Rally with great results
Kevin Benavides on motorcycles and Manu Andújar on quads are fighting for the win. Jeremías González Ferioli won in UTV and is fifth overall. Juan Cruz Yacopini is already top ten in cars
At kilometer 55 of today’s special Walkner fell and suffered a blow to the back. Not being able to move, Benavides helped him until assistance arrived and once his partner was transferred, the Argentine continued in the competition. He put in a fierce pace as he remembered differences and ended up winning the penultimate timed section which was 154 kilometers (521 kilometer link).
Once Benavides completed the partial and arrived at the camp, the organization he made up the time lost that were 23 minutes and 10 seconds. His final time trial left him on top of everyone in the stage that he won by 27 seconds about the south african Michael Docherty (Husqvarna). He now placed second overall, just 12 seconds behind his other teammate, the Australian Toby Price. The third in contention is the American Skyler Howes (Husqvarna), who is 1m31s from the lead. Between them three will be the fight for victory.
“This definition is similar to that of France with Argentina, now we are going to penalties,” Benavides anticipated on Friday and he was right. To get to this one-on-one with Price and Howes, the man from Salta raised yesterday to be able to start fifth and be able to take advantage of a cleaner path to get closer to his rivals and be able to regain global command. He is now close to his second victory in the Dakar Rally after the one achieved in 2021, when he won with Honda.
The dramatic story of the Argentine Franco Caimi after his accident: “I had to eject myself from the motorcycle”
The man from Mendoza had to let go to avoid further consequences in a fall in the dunes. Kevin Benavides continues third and this Saturday he will seek to settle a race based on strategy
He confidently notes it to Kevin who recalled two coincidences from that win two years ago. “In 2021 the rest day also fell on my birthday (01/09) and again the race will end on January 15. I choose to believe“, held. In addition, unlike other editions, he had no injuries in the previous one and admitted that he arrived as never before in the physical aspect.
On this day he finished third Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna). The youngest of the brothers from Salta had finished first, but was penalized by one minute for exceeding the speed limit of 160 km/h. Had it not been for that sanction, he would have won by 3 seconds. Overall he is sixth.
The Argentine Kevin Benavides had a stellar performance, leads the Dakar Rally on motorcycles and dreams of the crown days from the end
The man from Salta told Infobae why he changed his career plan. He was fourth in the stage, but in the general he was more than his two greatest rivals and leads with four days to go
The Mendoza Franco Caimi (Hero) was 13th and completes the top ten overall. His brother Stefano (KTM) was 25th, the same position it occupies in the overall.
In quads there is another Argentine who stands out and fights for a podium. It’s about Mendoza Francisco Moreno Flores (Yamaha), who was third and remains second overall, 40m20s behind the Frenchman Alexandre Giroud (Yamaha), who was fifth today. the brazilian Marcelo Medeiros (Yamaha) posted his fourth consecutive set.
While the Argentine based in the United States, Pablo Copetti (Yamaha), was 4th and completed the podium in the general and the Santa Fe Alexander Fantoni (Yamaha), finished eighth, the same position as the overall ranking.
what is coming It will be the end with the last stage, the 14th, which will link Al-Hofuf with Damman. As it is the definition of the race, the bikes will start in the reverse order in which they arrived and this will allow the leaders to run on a clean route with a well-formed track. There will be 136 kilometers of timed that promise to be exciting in the definition of motorcycles. In addition, the competitors will have to do 281 kilometers of connection.
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