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Dakar Assault | SPORT

The 40th running of the gruelling Dakar Rally was the toughest since it moved to South America 10 years ago. This is everything you need to know

“It’s hot, it’s hard and its fun,” is how Red Bull KTM rider Matthias Walkner described the 2018 Dakar Rally at the conclusion of the second day of the epic two-week event. He’d finished the 267km timed special stage third quickest and was sitting third overall in the general standings. And although the two-time world champion would go on to celebrate his maiden Dakar victory ahead of Argentina’s Kevin Benavides (Monster Energy Honda Team) and Aussie teammate Toby Price, it was perhaps what he didn’t do more so than what he did, which would earn him a place in the long and illustrious list of winners of what is the toughest off-road race in the world.

At the start of Stage 10, with just five days of racing left to run, Walkner was still placed third overall, more than six-and-a-half minutes behind then leader Yamaha’s Adrien Van Beveren. But 797km later at the day’s end, the likeable 31-year old found himself at the top of the general standings with what would transpire to be an unassailable 39-minute lead.

It was a dramatic day in an already drama-filled event; not only did the-then rally leader van Beveren suffer a high-speed crash which dashed his victory hopes, but four other victory contenders took a wrong turn which meant Honda men Kevin Benavides and Joan Barreda Port, as well as KTM duo Aussie Toby Price and four-time world champ Antoine Méo, lost huge chunks of time and ended the day with 50 minutes to make up.   

As Walkner wheelied his Red Bull KTM 450 Rally over the finish line, he became the first Austrian to win the Dakar Rally’s motorcycle category, and he did it on an Austrian-built machine.

The win also handed KTM its 17th consecutive Dakar win since Italian Fabrizio Meoni took victory in the last-ever Paris-Dakar event in 2001.

Impressively, it means KTM has never lost a Dakar Rally it has entered. It means, despite Honda celebrating in four of the 12 stages which would run – one of them in commanding fashion when Joan Barreda Bort finished the second stage over three minutes quicker than any of his rivals – Big Red hasn’t graced the top step of the podium in almost 30 years. It means, too, that despite Yamaha holding the lead for five stages, it also hasn’t celebrated a Dakar victory in two decades.

Claiming some of the biggest names in rally racing, the 2018 Dakar Rally was one of the toughest since its move to its South American home.

5 Pivotal moments of 2018

When Sunderland lost feeling in his legs

Twelve months ago, Briton Sam Sunderland was celebrating becoming the first British rider to win the Dakar Rally, beating his Red Bull KTM teammate Matthias Walkner to the line by 32 minutes. With confidence soaring and an injury-free preseason, Sunderland was favourite to repeat his performance in 2018 and came out of the blocks hard and fast. He won two out of the first three stages and started the fourth with over three minutes on the chasing pack. Mid way through the stage, the 28-year old bottomed out after misjudging a landing which sent a heavy impact through the seat and into his body.

“I didn’t have a big, crazy crash as such. I missed a little pocket between the sand dunes, where normally you would land the bike,” he said. “It was only when I started to lose the feeling in my legs after continuing on for another five or 10km, that I didn’t have much of a choice to carry on.”

Sunderland stopped his bike, laid down on the sand and waited for medical assistance. He was airlifted back to the bivouac before being transferred to hospital for tests.

“I’ve squashed two discs at the bottom of my back and the reason I couldn’t feel my legs was because it was pressing on to my spinal column.”

When Joan hurt his knee

This year’s Dakar Rally was Monster Energy Honda Team’s Joan Barreda Bort’s seventh attempt at the coveted winner’s trophy. No stranger to the challenges of Dakar, he’s got 22 stage wins to his name, but a navigational error during the third stage meant the Spanish star ended the stage 14th in the general standings, 22 minutes off the leader.

Looking to right the error of his ways, the 34-year-old dominated the fifth stage to claw back an impressive 14 minutes from then Rally leader Yamaha’s Adrien van Beveren and found himself back up in fourth overall. He would claim another win in the seventh stage, the first of the two marathon stages, incredibly recovering to within striking distance of the top step.

In that seventh-stage charge the Spaniard had crashed and hurt his knee and, when doctors ruled there were no broken bones, he continued his plight.

It was during the 11th stage, still ranked second in the overall standings, that Joan Barreda Bort was forced to abandon his chase for the elusive winner’s trophy.

“I couldn’t take it anymore” he said. “Since I fell and hit my knee I have been suffering a lot in every stage. My knee was unstable and I had to change my position on the bike but even that didn’t help. Today I reached a point where I couldn’t feel my leg any more and I think, in spite of everything, the best decision has been to stop so as not to make the situation worse.”

When Van Beveran crashed out

With the weight of Yamaha’s first victory in 20 years weighing on his shoulders, French rider Adrien van Beveren had, as he said, “everything to play for”. His comment came during the cancelled Stage nine having led the Rally for four of the previous five days, though with a relatively small buffer of just 22 seconds over his nearest rival.

But it was just three kilometres before the finish of the 795km Stage 10 when the 27-year-old suffered a high-speed crash on his WR450F. Determined not to give up his lead, he got to his feet, remounted his bike and rode on for 100 or so metres before stopping, conceding he was unable to go on.

“I’m completely groggy and very probably injured,” he was reported saying at the time. It would later transpire that he suffered a broken collarbone, an injured thorax, two broken ribs and a bruised lung.

Yamalube Yamaha Official Rally Team director Alexandre Kowalski said, “Adrien is in much better spirits today, but still extremely disappointed for losing the chance to continue the race and his battle for the coveted Dakar victory.

“It’s been a heavy blow for all the members of our team but we are all standing behind Adrien”.

When four blokes lost a  combined time of 195 minutes

Adrian van Beveren’s crash wasn’t the only dramatic turn of events to occur during the long Stage 10. Four of the six leading riders lost huge amounts of time when they lost their way in search of a hard-to-find waypoint.

In temperatures nudging the high 40s, Honda men Kevin Benavides and Joan Barreda Bort and KTM teammates Toby Price and Antoine Méo all lost an average of 50 minutes when they got lost in a river bed at the 150km mark.

“It’s one of those days you want to forget,” Price said that night, having dropped to fifth overall, 50m18s behind his teammate and new Rally leader Matthias Walkner. “The notes all seemed to say 150km and the rio we got into started at 150km. We thought we’d got it right, but obviously not.

“I don’t’ know, the roadbook is a bit average at the moment but that’s the way it is. For us it’s pretty much done – we’ll just keep plugging away each day and see what happens. You never know, but it’s not looking too good.

“That’s the way it is. I’ve just got to try and see what the rest of the week will bring now. It was a bit of a hot one and I didn’t have much fluid, so I’m a bit drained and dehydrated.”

When Matthias Walkner believed in himself  

Matthias Walkner was the sixth rider away from the start line on that dramatic and disastrous Stage 10 of the 2018 Dakar Rally, with a 6m35s deficit on van Beveren. So when the tracks of all five of the riders ahead of him disappeared from sight, he began to doubt he’d read the roadbook correctly.

“I carried on and trusted myself,” he said. “It was a big relief when I saw the waypoint validated and I reached the finish.”

The 31-year-old’s self-belief paid off. In fact it probably earned him the most coveted trophy in motorcycle off-road racing, because when he found himself celebrating his first stage win of the 2018 event, he also found himself at the top of the overall standings for the first time, and with a commanding lead of 39m21s over the injured factory Honda rider Joan Barreda Bort.

“It’s always good to take a stage win, but never nice when one of your opponents crashes out. I hope Adrien (van Beveren) is okay,” he said at the conclusion of the game-changing stage. “I knew today how important it would be to bide my time and concentrate on finding each waypoint successfully.

“Better to spend a few seconds getting things right than pushing on and wasting a lot more time after getting lost.”

The Aussies

Three Aussies flew the Australian flag this year and they did us proud. The 2016 winner Toby Price, the factory-supported Yamaha veteran Rod Faggotter and the self-funded Dakar rookie Scott Britnell. This is how their fortnight played out.

Toby Price

For the third time in four attempts, Toby Price has celebrated a podium at the gruelling Dakar Rally. A hell of an achievement in itself, but with just six weeks of on-bike preparation leading into what is undoubtedly the most demanding off-road race in the world, his third-place finish may as well have been a win.

Twelve months ago, the Red Bull KTM star crashed heavily while leading the fourth stage of the 2017 event, breaking his femur into four pieces. A year later and various ongoing complications meant Toby Price’s participation in the 2018 event looked sketchy.

He had a steady start, easing his way into the race but by the end of the eighth stage, found himself in fourth overall, just 7m35s behind van Beveren.

Consistent performances would follow and until what he called the “day you want to forget” arrived and he lost 50 minutes, he was threatening for the top spot.

He fought back in Stage 11, where he nabbed his first stage win of the 2018 event, and backed it up in the penultimate Stage 13, however it was a case of too-little too-late for the New South Wales rider.

“It was great to get my first stage win at Stage 11, it was a little bit tricky in Stage 13 but we made up some time in the first section of the stage,” said Price. “I am happy to get to the finish line, that was our main goal.

“Second [place] for Stage 14, and all in all I’m really pumped to be at the finish. And to come away with third overall is something I wasn’t expecting on [my] return from injury!  “I’m stoked to walk away from this fit and healthy and I’m looking forward to 12 months prep for the 2019 Dakar Rally!”

Rod Faggotter

Queensland-based Yamaha dealer Rod Faggotter was the highest finishing Yamaha rider in the 2018 Dakar Rally. Aged 41, it was his fourth attempt at the gruelling event and this year he played the role of support rider to the top Yamaha men, Adrien van Beveren and Xavier de Soultrait.

With only a few stages left to run, the Aussie off-road legend found himself as the only Yamaha in the top 20 places of the general standings, with de Soultrait and van Beveren both sidelined with crash-inflicted broken bones.

“Not feeling any pressure to finish … that I already gave to myself. I was going to push the bastard if I had to!” he joked after the event.

Faggotter did indeed make it the end, finishing an outstanding 16th overall from 139 starters, but said he felt he could have finished even higher if the weather hadn’t hampered proceedings.

“It was a little disappointing that we had two stages cut from the event as I was feeling okay and recovering well – something not crashing definitely assists with,” he said. “Overall, I’m super happy to complete another Dakar – especially after last year’s mechanical failure – [and I’m] very grateful for the opportunity again.”

The truth is, the weather was the least of Faggotter’s issues. He gave up a hell of a lot of time completing his role as support rider, assisting not just the Yamaha-mounted crew, but also friends he made along the route. It’s the Dakar way.

Scott Britnell

For Scott Britnell, the 2018 Dakar Rally was a big tick off of his life-long bucket list.

Britnell, (who in 2016 became the fastest man across Australia when he rode from Cape Byron, NSW, to Steep Point, WA, in 72 hours and 10 minutes) entered, competed and finished the Dakar Rally’s unassisted Original by Motul (formerly called Malle Moto) category. The toughest class of them all.

Only 16 riders finished in the unassisted category, with the 43-year-old Macarthur rider finishing 61st overall from the total of 85 who would eventually see the finish line.

He was forced to rebuild his front fork after one of his fork legs unscrewed from the axle lug mid-stage. After stopping continuously to re-tighten the offending fork by hand, Britnell managed to limp his bike to the bivouac, where he fixed it under the verbal guidance of an onlooker.   

“Dakar 2018 has very much been the experience that I thought it would be,” Britnell said. “So many trials and tribulations packed into such a compressed space of time. For the average competitor, each day could stand as one you could tell stories about for decades.

“The tempo of the race provides no time for daily reflection, but rather forces you into a situation of compounding effect to start the next day more tired, more worn, more bruised and fighting to find the time to upload enough fluid and calories to see the next bivouac before sunset.

“It was brutal. I survived. I finished in the toughest classification offered in the spirit of the sport, and I got the experience that I came for.”