We're on the right path Dakar Stage 2 winner, David Fretigne
Maverick - Jan 3, 2010

In a sport where the machine plays such a significant role, the French racer hasn’t made things easy on himself: go faster than the others with a less powerful motorcycle. He rides a 450 WRF Yamaha.

Fretigne remains third overall following, fellow Frenchman David Casteu on a Sherco, by 2 minutes 14 seconds, and Frenchman Cyril Despres, on a KTM, by 2 minutes 10 seconds.  

Since 2004 and Fretigne’s first appearance on the Dakar on a 450cc Yamaha that at the time made many smile, David Fretigné never stopped moving closer to the best, until eventually reaching the podium in 2009, just behind the two bosses of the discipline Marc Coma et Cyril Despres.

The unequal yet romantic battle of the rider from Aveyron has witnessed a new turning point due to the change of regulation decided this year. This time, the performances of the 690cc KTMs that were on his path to success will be troubled by restrictors. While we haven’t yet reached “an all 450 race” that David claims for, this year could be a good opportunity to hit hard: “Anyhow, I want to do better and I can’t get things wrong. I don’t yet know if the effect of the restrictor will be enough for us to be on equal terms, but we’re on a good path. I believe that there will be a nice battle and it’s interesting to see new constructors show up”.

Confident in the future, “Fretos” certainly doesn’t want to hear about his favorite’s status in the race this year, but his analysis of numbers however betrays his ambition. Third of the previous edition, he asked the organization to keep his lucky number, both to remain faithful to the area he comes from in France and also as a challenge: “My race number plate has number 12 and I’ll do my best to get rid of the 2!”