"There was much more to lose than to win on today's stage. In the Dakar every stage is different so it's not easy to maintain a strategy" , Matthias Walkner
Joan Barreda won the stage, his second of the race so far, by a huge margin. The Spaniard took the overall race lead after Stage 2, but a navigation error the following day dropped him down the overall standings. The Honda rider finished more than 10 minutes clear of his closest challenger, Austrian Matthias Walkner, today though.
Kevin Benavides rounded out the podium and there was an impressive run by Antoine Méo, but it’s Yamaha’s Adrian Van Beveren who continues to lead the overall standings
Xavier de Soultrait: “Quicksand is no joke”
“I started right behind Adrien and caught him on the dunes. I overtook him for a short while, but I took it easy and let him move back to the front. I’d never seen sand so loose before, it’s incredible. Quicksand is no joke. It changes shape, you gradually notice it. The atmosphere is good, we’re better in sync and it really helps. There was a moment when I’d missed a waypoint and he showed me where it was. He later got stuck in the sand, so I stopped to see if he could get out. If KTM have won so many times, it’s probably because they’re good at this game. Now we’re realising just how far we can go.”
Xavier de Soultrait
