Janis Vinters gives Latvia its first victory in a special stage of the Dakar

Despres started this special stage with navigation tools malfunctioning. © Gauloises Racing. Starting from 21st position this morning, amateur rider Janis Vinters gives Latvia its first victory in a special stage at the Dakar Rally in todays ninth stage between Tichit - Nema.
Dakar's leader Marc Coma strategically managed his first place in the overall rankings by driving without rushing on top of the race during the 494km of today’s special stage.

The gearbox defect hitting the new KTM 690 is probably somewhere at the back of the mind of leader in the bike race Marc Coma. But it certainly did not prevent him from further pursuing its triumphant march on Dakar. In this 9th stage of the raid, the Catalan spent the day alone once again. He started first, he finished first, however without making the best time: this is race management ‘a la Coma’.

The winner of this 4th Mauritanian stage has not yet been seen since the beginning of the rally. Janis Vinters, 10th in last year’s edition, surprised everyone by getting the best timing on all CPs before victoriously crossing the line 7’31’’ ahead of Cyril Despres.

Behind, Coma’s adversaries could not do anything. His challenger, Cyril Despres, who fell on km 130, had started this special stage with navigation tools malfunctioning; he had to go through the whole special manually scrolling through his road book. Hard, therefore, to catch up with the Catalan, who remains way ahead and only gave in 22’’ to the Frenchman. The gap is till 54’36’’ between the two men. As for Pal-Anders Ullevalseter, happy to be in the top 5 of the overall rankings, he just caught up with and then followed Despres till 30 km of the finish. The Norwegian finishes 4th at 7’53’’.

Cyril Despres: "Yesterday during the assistance evening, I must have lost my mechanical skills. This morning at the start of the special stage, there was a wire loose in the road book. I had to scroll through it manually all day. It’s as if I had to twist candy-frost on a stick for 7 hours straight at a fun fair. So I had to pay even closer attention. Additionally, being physically tired, I had to be extra focused! As for the gearbox problems of the KTM bikes, we’ll see how things change. If Coma is ok, he will have to think about playing the lottery soon. There will be a lot of stress tomorrow. I still believe in it, I am not fighting for 2nd place in the overall rankings. I might have a chance of winning. A lot of things can still happen till we’re on the beach in Dakar. ‘Marathon’ stages are great for the Dakar. Ok, today I had to pay my dues, but it’s a good thing. It spiced up the race."
(Gauloises Racing)

---