The penultimate stage of the 2017 Dakar Rally, Stage 11 was the last true opportunity for riders to make a run at the leaderboard, as Saturday’s stage involved only a 64km timed special.
With 286km of sand and dunes to navigate, it was once again the Honda riders that headed the pack. Leading from start to finish, Joan Barreda took his fourth stage victory (don’t let the Dakar video fool you with its lies), followed by his teammate Paulo Gonçalves, for another Honda one-two stage victory.
The result moved both Honda riders to well under their one-hour time penalty from early in the race, showing the strong pace and program that HRC has put together for the Dakar Rally.
Yamaha Racing too showed it promise, with Adrien van Beveren taking the third spot in the day’s honors. That result moves him, and Yamaha, closer to a podium in Buenos Aires (though not into third place yet, as the Dakar Rally video says).
Meanwhile at the top of the overall leaderboard, we saw the KTM riders doing a more conservative race, managing the half-hour gap to their would-be usurpers.
Sam Sunderland extended his lead by several minutes, finishing fourth for the day. With teammate Matthias Walkner finishing the day 10th, Sunderland extended his overall lead by several minutes.
Going into Buenos Aires, we don’t expect the overall order to change much. Though, we should warn, the Dakar is notorious for its sudden challenges.
John McGuinness is a pretty cool dude. You would know that if you spent some time with him. In case you haven’t though, here is you best chance, as British actor Andrew Shim is working on a project called “Inside the Passion” – the first episode of which covers McPint, in all his Average Joe glory.
The format is one part “day in the life” and another part “candid interview”…and there might be a couple fart and dick jokes in there as well. All in all, it shows McGuinness to be the down-to-earth fella most fans know him to be, and most racers aren’t.
At over 20 minutes long, there are also some fun cameos from riders like Lee Johnston and Conor Cummins.
Suzuki Motor of America has released the pricing on its new superbike lineup, showing aggressive prices for the 2017 Suzuki GSX-R1000 and 2017 Suzuki GSX-R1000R motorcycles, which will start at $14,599 MSRP.
As you may recall, the new Suzuki GSX-R1000 is a brand new design that uses a flat-plane inline-four engine with variable valve timing (VVT), which is of note as it is the first superbike to use variable valve technology.
Official specs on the new Suzuki GSX-R1000 show a claimed 199hp and 86.7 lbs•ft of torque.
The next rider to go under the microscope in our retrospective of 2016 is one of the most interesting of the year. Cal Crutchlow had a season of two halves, but up and down. Here’s how we rate the LCR Honda rider’s performance last year:
Racing returns to the 2017 Dakar Rally, with Stage 10 taking the competitors from Chilecito to San Juan. The day had two timed special stages, with 449km of terrain to cover while under the stopwatch.
One of the last days to make time on the leaders, we saw some heroic rides from farther down the time sheet, while the top riders kept it conservative.
Of course, the big news of the day was the retirement of Pablo Quintanilla, who fainted during the stage, and gave up his #2 spot in the overall standings. This was a huge blow to Husqvarna’s Dakar hopes for 2017, as Pierre-Alexandre Renet is now the team’s top rider – 6th overall after today.
Fortunes were mixed for the Honda boys as well, as Joan Barreda took another stage win, and climbed to fifth overall. Barreda is now less than hour back from overall leader Sam Sunderland, which should be a topic of conversation after Honda’s one-hour time penalty for an illegal fueling.
The day would have been a one-two for Honda, but Michael Metge missed allegedly missed a waypoint, and was handed another one-hour time penalty for it.
Metge’s ride still was important for HRC though, as the French rider helped Barreda, after the Spaniard made a navigation error – like any good water-carrier does.
Stage 10 was billed as the most difficult stage of this year’s rally, and for Yamaha’s Adrien van Beveren it certainly was. Making mistakes on the course, Van Beveren finished 17th on the stage, which dropped him to 4th overall. He will need to make up over three minutes to get back into podium position.
For KTM, it was solid day of time management for Sam Sunderland, who finished in 12th, over 17 minutes behind Barreda. But, because his nearest rivals didn’t fare the day as well, Sunderland actually extended his overall lead by almost 10 minutes.
Sunderland now commands a 30-minute lead over teammate Matthias Walkner, and a 38-minute lead over fellow KTM rider Gerard Farres. For as much contention as there has been for the 2017 Dakar Rally leaderboard, it is looking very possible that we could see KTM sweep the podium when we get to Buenos Aires.
Tomorrow sees the Dakar Rally heading closer to the finish line, with 288km planned for the penultimate timed special. Riders will have to contend with their last set of sand dunes, which will come early in the stage, before hitting more “rally” styled roads.
This will likely be the last chance to see movement in the leaderboard, though never say never.
Stage 10 proved to be the end of Pablo Quintanilla’s Dakar Rally, as the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna factory had to withdraw from the race, after suffering from a dizzy spell during the grueling 751km day.
For those who haven’t been following our coverage of the 2017 Dakar Rally, Quintanilla was sitting second overall in the standings, and within striking distance of giving the Swedish brand its first Dakar victory.
Today’s stage, as well as tomorrow’s Stage 11, are the last real opportunities for movement in the overall standings, as the final round on Saturday is more of a 64km parade lap.
At just under 21 minutes behind race leader Sam Sunderland, a simple mistake by the KTM racer could easily have seen Quintanilla take the lead in the overall standings. Making the days certainly bittersweet for the factory Husqvarna squad.
Those of you with Sena intercoms on your helmets and motorcycles will be pleased to hear that your headsets just got a major range extension, thanks to a new smartphone app that connects to Sena’s communications system.
The idea is pretty simple, really, as the RideConnected App connects your headset via bluetooth, and to your smartphone’s internet connection, and then uses either that wifi or a cellular network to create a talk group.
This means that Sena users can communicate at an infinite range with multiple riders, so long as they have either wireless service available to them. It also means that non-riders can connect to the group talk, with their own smartphone app.
The Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme is set for some new leadership, as Steve Aeschlimann has been appointed to take over from Ignacio Verneda as CEO of the FIM.
Aeschlimann has been a senior member of the FIM since 2011, holding several high ranks within the organization during his tenure. Before joining the FIM, Aeschlimann was the Director of the UEFA, the European Football Union.
Now as the CEO of the FIM, Aeschlimann’s goal will be to modernize motorcycling’s highest governing body, which will be no easy task.
The next rider under the microscope in our series examining the 2016 season is Dani Pedrosa.
The Repsol Honda rider had been heavily tipped before the 2016 season, but things didn’t quite work out the way he had hoped. Here’s our assessment of Pedrosa.