- The storm after the tempest, the tenth stage in Dakar 2017 shakes up the classification and boosts the HIMOINSA Racing Team.
January 12th, 2017 – San Juan (Argentina).- There were plenty of complaints from some riders about the cancellation of the two stages which were shut down due to the weather conditions, which showed no mercy for the South American continent. Specifically, the supression of Wednesday’s king stage seemed to dumb down the race excessively and play into the hands of faster bikes and riders over expert navigators. Nevertheless, the tenth stage between Chilecito and San Juan was filled with difficulties which would cause the biggest upset in the standings so far, taking down some of the favourites, such as Quintanilla (forced to withdraw due to illness), De Soultrait (navigation issues) and would put Van Beveren against the ropes, fuelling the HIMOINSA Racing Team’s expectations as well as their leader’s Gerard Farrés, who took advantage of the situation with his usual consistency, improving his position in the overall classification. He finishes the day in 3rd position with two days left to arrive to Buenos Aires.
The first part of the special was deadly for the front runners as the great majority of them made mistakes in their navigation which made them lose “buckets” of minutes. This served as an opportunity to gain time back for the back runners of the rankings as well as for Gerard Farrés to regain his chances of a podium. The Manresan also struggled at times with the navigation and had issues with his iritrack along the whole stage, compromising the lecture of his passing through the checkpoints, but in the end he stayed consistent and profitted from the circumstances.
However, it wasn’t just Farrés fishing in troubled waters, as the whole team managed a great performance, especially Iván Cervantes, who got his confidence back and even fought for the stage win during the most technical areas at the start of the special. Finally, the Cambrils native finished the stage in seventh position, sneaking into the top ten.
Antonio Gimeno and Dani Oliveras made yet another statement of their skill in complicated situations, managing to mix it up with the best in this messy stage, enabling them to climb even further in the standings.
Gerard Farrés: “It was a very varied stage, with different kinds of terrain and truly complicated, really tough. Conscious of the chaos around me, I decided to go full speed in the second sector to attempt to regain as much time as possible, and it went well. Already third overall today and tomorrow’s battle with Van Beveren will be really hard, as only three minutes separate us. We must give it all we have and try to ride another solid stage to keep climbing in the standings.”
Iván Cervantes: “Today I was able to ride comfortably, making no mistakes and finally finding that good feeling I have been looking for. I am very satisfied with this stage result and also really happy for Gerard, who is killing it. Only two days left and the whole team is over the moon, tomorrow we will leave nothing on the table.”
STAGE
7th Cervantes 08:10 behind
14th Farrés 22:20 behind
19th Gimeno 47:57 behind
27th Oliveras, 1:08:46 behind
OVERALL
3rd Farrés 38:43 behind
16th Cervantes 2:22:04 behind
21st Oliveras 3:24:35 behing
25th Gimeno 3:43:04 behind
