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Saturday, January 14 STAGE 13: NASCA – PISCO
Road connection: 96 km – Special Stage 275 km – Road connection: 4 km – Total: 375 km
The last big special of the Dakar 2012 was far from being simple for competitors. For leaders, Marc Coma started in front of Barreda and Viladoms. Cyril Despres, fourth to take the start, had evidently an advantage over the Catalonian who must open the road. Coma worked his road-book and navigation all night long and planned to take the necessary risks to hold the victory.
Unfortunately, “Miss Bad Luck” came to visit him at kilometer 20… “I lost the second and third gear. In these conditions it was very difficult to follow the road-book and I had to improvise traces in the dunes, in fourth and fifth gear wasn’t simple at all. I also lost time to go get a way point… But oh well, it wasn’t my year, I had many things against me and I am disappointed that I couldn´t give the fight until the end,” tells Coma.
After this episode, it is Cyril Despres who heads the overall classification with more than 11 minutes over Coma while there is only a special of 28 kilometers left for tomorrow. “I cannot celebrate the problems of Marc. I attacked all day long and I got lost two or three times, but nothing so bad. The race is not over yet… the finish line is for tomorrow,” assures the French rider.
It was Helder Rodrigues who signed the stage win of this special that took competitors to Pisco. The Cross Country Rally World Champion won the stage followed by Despres, Viladoms, Barreda and Gonçalves. The timed section, plenty of sand with beach and dunes, caused some damages: David Casteu felt and his bike landed on his back and suffers from his ribs, Alain Duclos hurt his knee and his ankle while Mika Pisano will arrive in a Tango (medical car on the race track) due to a broken engine…
In quads, the victory of the day was for Maffei in front of La Fuente and the two Patronelli, Alejandro and Marcos, while Camelia Liparoti takes the 7th position. Overall, Alejandro Patronelli keeps the lead in front of his brother and 2h15’ over Tomas Maffei.
