Home
Stage 11: Arica - Arequipa
Road connection: 90 km – Special Stage: 148 km – Road connection: 130 km - Special Stage: 255 km – Road connection: 82 km – Total: 705 km
The Dakar is now in Peru, the 27th country crossed by this race since its beginning! The physiognomy of people changes; in the markets, women wear typical hats, and in the road to Arequipa, the crowd was out for the party to watch the Dakar caravan pass by.
For bikes and quads, the race track was going to be different from that of the cars, but it was finally modified and the same for all categories due to the high water level of rivers. The stage was carried out in two parts, with a neutralized section where riders, that sleep tonight in a different bivouac for their marathon stage (with no assistance) 150 kilometers from the one of the cars, were able to be helped by their mechanics.
During the first part, competitors crossed two deep rivers. Many riders drowned in it, among them Faria, Duclos, the Yamaha bikes… and other like Coma, Després, Barreda took the wrong way at kilometer 40 and had to turn back to catch the right track. At the finish line of this special, a brand new trio: Farres leading the stage, followed by the incredible Johnny Aubert and Felipe Zanol.
The second part of the special took place in the mountains, with a dreadful downhill of 45 degrees in fesh-fesh, and in the gray dunes… At the finish line, Cyril Després took time back to Coma, who expected this situation: “He started behind, it is completely normal that he was able to catch some minutes. Tomorrow it is me who starts behind… In this game there is nothing else to do than to attack.” But today, the victory did not belong to Cyril or Marc; it was Gerard Farres who won… which means that Marc can still take four minutes back to Després tomorrow. The suspense is huge and there are still three days to go!
Regarding quads, the Patronelli brothers helped each other all along the special stage. Marcos got out of the first river and went back to help his brother who was blocked in the middle. Further, in the second part, he also took him out from the fesh-fesh, where a wheel of the quad was blocked. The two sympathetic Argentineans finished 31 seconds one from the other while Maffei was 19 minutes away. Overall, Alejandro is followed by Marcos while Maffei is more than 2 hours behind!
