Dakar2012: Day 7 from Bikes in the Fast Lane

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Dakar2012: Day 7

January
2012

  File under
  Author: Mike Werner
  Location: Normandy, France

Day 7 sees the Dakar

motorcycles racing in Chile, and as always, the spectacular decent at Copiapo.

Watching Marc Coma

and Cyril Despres

going down the sand mountain together, like they were having a Sunday stroll in the park, just shows how good these two really are. Coupled with the fact that the 3rd best rider is 45 minutes behind them already, says it all. Coma took the stage win, nibbling away at Despres's lead, with only 7 minutes and 48 seconds separating the two. Helder Rodrigues

is his Yamaha is now in 3rd place, behind by 49 minutes.

Cyril Despres: "This morning it was fast, I wasn’t really in attack mode and, as I expected, Marc caught me up. Then, over the last 120 kilometres in the dunes above Copiapo we attacked really hard and I have to say it was a lot of fun. It wasn’t as if we were on holiday exactly but it was a good reminder of how much fun you can have riding a motorcycle!
Now we are at the bivouac where we will stay for tomorrow’s rest day. The idea is to take it easy and recharge your batteries ready for the second week of racing. It will also be a chance for me to go through my bags, sort out my stuff, talk to my team… If everything goes according to plan I might even squeeze in a siesta."

Marc Coma: "We all know that the stage before the rest day is always difficult, and today was no exception, with stifling heat and very soft sand. Nevertheless, we rode very fast and I was able to attack. I gained two minutes on Cyril but that is obviously not enough! We know the strategy well, so we are aware that I will probably gain two minutes one day, then Cyril will gain two minutes the next... And it is hard to change this when there is only one road. Anyway, we are second in the general classification on the rest day and everything is going smoothly, so it has been a good rally for us so far.”

Here are the photos of yesterday. courtesy KTM

and Maragni M.

. All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them after they have all fully loaded.