DAKAR 2014 Stage 12
El Salvador > La Serena Special stage 350 km Connection 349 km Total 699 km
Second 2014 Dakar victory today for Cyril Despres (Yamaha Factory Racing) as he continues his fight to get on to the podium. And with second placed man Joan Barreda losing over 3 hours today Cyril finds himself in 4th place overall just 3 minutes 45 seconds behind third placed man Olivier Pain. Cyril’s support rider Michael Metge had a less successful day with electrical problems in 44th place and 13th overall.
Cyril Despres
“A good day – I really enjoyed myself. As I expected, I caught Marc (Coma) quite quickly, he let me pass and then once again I opened the piste until the end of the special. Now there’s only one relatively short stage before the end and I’m just a few minutes off the podium. As is the tradition at Yamaha, there are no team orders, so I’ll continue to ride as I have since the start of this race, to try and finish in the best position possible.”
Michael Metge
“My bike stopped at kilometre 280 with an electrical problem and so I started checking all the connections until I got the bike running again. It took a while and it was so hot out there in the middle of nowhere that I was worried I’d suffer heat stroke. Fortunately some Chilean guys turned up on moto-x bikes and poured water all over me to keep me cool. Without them I’d have really been in trouble.”
Alexandre Kowalski – Team Manager
“Neither Cyril or Olivier have received any team orders – it is not the Yamaha way of doing things – we believe the race should be on the piste, not in the bivouac. We have obviously discussed the situation between us and they know they are both free to ride their own race. Whatever the outcome I am confident both riders will remain ‘fairplay’.”
