Dakar Update – Despres Wins

Stage 6 of the Dakar has been run and won and more gearbox problems for Cyril Despres made a long stage even longer for the French KTM rider.  He lost another 10 minutes to Marc Coma, who despite finishing 2nd in this stage, still leads the race overall.

Spain's Jordi  Viladoms won the longest stage of the 2007 Dakar by just under one minute from Coma, with Chris Blais (USA), rounding out another top 3 finish for KTM.  In fact, the Austrian bikes once again filled the top 6 places on the stage.

It was Viladoms first ever stage win in only his second Dakar and as Coma's team mate, it cerrtainly show that they have a good formula for this type of racing.  Blais was happy with the result, at times reaching speeds of over 160km/h on the special, just insane in the deep sand these guys ride in.  12 riders failed to finish 

The 580km Stage 7 from Zouerat to Atar includes a mammoth 542km special with lots of dunes…….big dunes.