Dakar 2022 | Stage 2 | Ha’il > Al Qaisumah
Genuinely swamped by the rain, the bivouac at Al Artawiyah was deprived of the very special evening of the marathon stage it was originally planned to host. Nevertheless, bowing to nature is in the DNA of the rally-raid discipline: without the bat of an eyelid, the organisers and competitors re-routed to the stage 3 bivouac. However, the sporting programme for the second stage did not suffer similar upheaval because, on completion of the 338-km special, heading towards the province of Riyadh, a new 270-km link route made it possible to reach Al Qaisumah, where the caravan will stay for two nights. The competitors in the Dakar Classic category, whose route parallel to the other categories was too heavily impacted by the flooding, travelled directly in convoy to the replacement stage hosting city. 90% of the day’s special was contested on sand, with a third made up of dunes on which the leading lights in the bike category started to close ranks just before the combat between Al-Attiyah and Loeb turned to the advantage of the BRX Hunter.
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He has never given up and is still chasing a first title on the Dakar. Joan Barreda, reputed to be one of the fastest riders in the pack, has never enjoyed a better finish than the 5th place in the overall classification that he achieved in 2017. Yesterday, a long session of navigational difficulties compromised his chances. However, as is often the case, his temperament drove him into making a comeback. With an attacking strategy pushed to the extreme, he grabbed his 28th stage victory, while far ahead of him, Sam Sunderland and Adrien Van Beveren respectively seized the first two places in the overall classification, separated by a gap of 2’51’’.
Sébastien Loeb is another formidable hunter of stage wins. What’s more, with his 15th victory on the Dakar (see Stat of the day), which he obtained by stalking Nasser Al-Attiyah who was on top form, the Frenchman moved to within 9’16’’ and, behind the wheel of his evidently smoothly running Hunter BRX, he showed himself to be a worthy rival to the Qatari for the title. The duel that is emerging between Al-Attiyah and Loeb is very unlikely to be affected by the Audis, even if both Carlos Sainz and Stéphane Peterhansel are still determined to set tongues wagging with their performances: after their setbacks yesterday, they completed the stage in 3rd and 4th place.
Manuel Andújar also suffered yesterday, but the injector problems on his quad have now been solved. With his stage triumph, he took a leaf out of Barreda’s strategy book, but still trails the leader in the category, Lithuanian Laysvidas Kancius, by half an hour. In the T3 race, Guillaume De Mevius accomplished a veritable exploit (see Performance of the day), pipping “Chaleco” López at the post by 4 minutes, though the Chilean can console himself with gaining the leadership in the overall classification, due to Seth Quintero’s differential case breaking 30 km from the finishing line.
Poland again featured on the roll of honour for SSV stage wins, thanks to the best time of the day achieved by Michal Goczał, but it was Austin Jones who took command of the overall classification with a small lead of 1’52’’.
A third different Kamaz this year triumphed in the truck race, with Andrei Karginov finishing in front of his team-mates. The situation is similar in the overall classification, with the blue trucks occupying the first four places and Sotnikov in the lead!