Dakar Rally , Stage 9, Antofagasta to Iquique
Dakar Rally Media - Jan 11, 2012

In the end Cyril Despres only needed a day to brush away the memory of his muddy mishap on the 8th stage. Seventh to get to grips with the day's special, altered to 606 km in length due to weather-related changes to the route, the Frenchman set off at a frightening pace. In the lead at all the day's check points, Despres displayed his talent at high speed to win his 3rd stage on the Dakar 2012 and the man with whom he is the best of enemies, Marc Coma, who finished 2nd today.  

Reflecting on today’s stage, Despres said: “It's feeling good. After a difficult day yesterday when you start to doubt, I had to get back to winning ways. It wasn't easy to psyche myself up for it, but I'm very happy with my day's work. We came into this looking at a battle for seconds or minutes. It's very competitive. Like any top level sportsman, if you don't like confrontation or squeezing the last ounces of strength out of yourself, then you're not ready for a fight. But, as for me, I'm up for it.”

Hindered by having to open the road, the Catalan nevertheless went out on full attack on both of the day's timed sections, but mainly to limit the damage in the general standings. Indeed, at the end of this very long special stage, all the Spaniard could do was hand back the command of the race to his sole rival, who he now trails by 2'28”… The duel is far from over, though, especially since both riders changed their engines yesterday evening and are therefore equal in strategic terms.

Coma appears ready to make a move to the lead again: “We knew that this would be a difficult race. It was long and there was plenty of navigation to deal with. We're coming to the crunch part of the rally. Cyril is a major rival and we do battle over every single kilometre. But I think it's interesting, it's sport. Yesterday, the KTM technicians decided it was time to change our engines because we'd reached the half-way point. It's a very good idea.”

Still just as surprisingly consistent on his 2nd participation, Spaniard Juan Barreda Bort achieved the 3rd best time of the day, 8'28” behind Despres, but more than three minutes ahead of regulars on the event like Helder Rodrigues and Paulo Goncalves.

Juan had this to say after arriving at Iquique: “It was quick and difficult, dangerous with lots of dust and rocks. At the end, there was some navigation to tackle and it was possible to lose everything we'd battled for during the day. I had a few difficulties with the way points. I was 30” behind Cyril Despres, but I lost my way little so I decided to slow down a bit to make sure I didn't make any mistakes. For me, finishing here after the difficult last 50 kilometres of navigation is very positive. It's new to me and I'm happy to have managed to tackle it properly. It's been a good day.”

Still in with a shout for the final podium, the two Portuguese riders, Rodrigues and Goncalves, are now separated by 26'38” in favour of Rodrigues.

After blowing his engine at the 550-km point of the special stage, David Casteau will have to bid goodbye to the battle for 3rd place.