Marco Coma still on a mission in Dakar's Stage Six
Maverick - Jan 8, 2010

The many navigation mistakes of his contenders allowed Marc Coma to finish with the best time of the day in the bike category and to move up four places in the overall standings.

Stage 6 summary

Pending validation by the race marshalls, Spanish rider Marc Coma (KTM) gets his second stage victory on this 32nd Dakar, his ninth in a Dakar. With a time of 4h46’59, the 2009 title holder arrived 10’34 before Frenchman Cyril Despres (KTM), and 10’38 before Portugal’s Helder Rodrigues (Yamaha)... In the standings, even if he says he won’t, Cyril Despres can now "manage" his lead which is now at 42’15 against Chile’s Lopez Contardo and 44’05 against Portugal’s Helder Rodrigues (Yamaha)… As for Marc Coma, he is ranking fourth but still 1h06’21 away from the leader.

Italian rider Luca Manca, who was ranking ninth this morning in the overall standings, had to be evacuated from the track after a very serious fall in the early hours of the stage.

Performance and riding technique… of course but in rally raid you recognize champions at the way they navigate too. If there was any demonstration of that fact needed, Marc Coma gave another proof of his navigation talent today between Antofagasta and Iquique. The first part of the special stage was a particularly challenging navigation test. “Chaleco” (Contardo Lopez), himself – who was opening the track as yesterday’s special stage winner – was caught in the trap despite his knowledge of the area. After a bad choice at km 23, Lopez lost some precious minutes and took along some of the best “outsiders” of the raid like David Frétigné, Alain Duclos, Paulo Goncalves or Pal-Anders Ullevalseter.

As for the leader in the overall standings, Cyril Despres did not allow being influenced by the Aprilia rider. Luckily because he was able to keep a tidy and flawless race, making the right choices when interpreting the road-book he managed to get to the finish line on a sober strategy and a good but not too fast pace.

Having left a little further behind the leaders in ninth position, Como managed to avoid “nav traps”. Coma also decided to speed things up to climb back a few places in the standings. This proved to be the right strategy for the Spaniard who regains about 10’ on Cyril Despres and is now 1h06’ behind the standings leader. This 9th special stage victory also allows him to pass the like of Jonah Street, Paulo Goncalves, Pal-Anders Ullevalseter and Alain Duclos in the standings. He jumps four places in one day even if the other places he still needs to jump might be harder to conquer.

Coma steals 10’ back to Despres

As the first 15 bikes have reached the end of stage 6, unsurprisingly, Spanish rider Marc Coma (KTM) endeds the stage with provisional best time 10’34 ahead of Frenchman Cyril Despres (KTM) and 10’38 ahead of Portuguese rider Helder Rodrigues (Yamaha), who ends up third.

Despres has no worries and remains solid overall leader with a 42’15 lead onto his closest follower in the standings Chile’s own Francisco Lopez Contardo (Aprilia).