Dakar 2017 Day 3: Complex Navigation Takes Its Toll On Santosh

After a decent outing on Tuesday, things didn’t go down well for CS Santosh in Wednesday’s 364km endurance stretch. Thanks to a tricky 70km navigation section – from San Miguel De Tucuman to San Salvador De Jujuy – many riders lost their way and time while negotiating it. Joaquim Rodrigues, despite losing around 30 minutes, was able to catch up and finish the competitive section at 19th position (overall standing 20th) in 4 hours 59 minutes 44 seconds. Santosh, on the other hand, after losing an hour in a riverbed section, finished 67th. But the worst was yet to come for the Indian rider as he was later awarded a severe penalty of an hour and 20 minutes for missing a waypoint which dropped him to 104th!

On the TVS Sherco side of things, Aravind KP, who had decided to continue in stage 3 despite wrist injury from a nasty fall, had to retire following another crash that happened 40 kilometres into the race. The rider has shown tremendous spirit in the second stage, unfortunately, things didn’t turn out well for him in his debut challenge as he is out of contention. Joan Pedrero, who has made it to the top ten in the first two stages of Dakar, felt the effects of the complex navigation and was pushed several spots down to 16th position holding the clock at 4 hours 57 minutes. On the other hand, Adrien Metge was able to scale crucial spots on the grid and finished 30th in 5 hours 23 minutes and 21 seconds.

The navigation blunder even took its toll on defending champion and stage 2’s leader, Toby Price. With 4 hours 45 minutes and 42 seconds on the clock, Price was only able to manage 9th position (5th overall) for himself. As for the stage 3’s leader, Joan Barreda Bort clinched his first stage victory in Dakar 2017 straddling his Honda, despite being awarded a minute as penalty.

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The course, which was the first endurance stretch of the 12 staged rally, threw some unique challenges at the participants. Apart from the tricky navigation, tackling altitude was one, and the participants had to endure through slight hail storm at one point.

However, J-Rod puts it this way “I got lost at kilometre 30. The first part of the stage was all navigation and with the dust, I got lost and couldn’t find my way out. There was a waypoint in there and it was really hard to find it with all that dust around. A lot of guys passed me, but I managed to get to the end of the stage in good time. So, I am pretty happy. Also, the altitude was new for me. I felt a little dizzy too but I am glad that I was able to hold my concentration at that altitude. It was a pretty good result for me today.”

Santosh, after a day’s struggle, said “As soon as the stage started, the navigation began and it was really hard right from the first kilometres. The track went through the riverbed and the surface was very soft and just to find the exit was really tough. It looked like I was doing the wrong thing and found myself in some very difficult places. I also crashed a few times that upset my whole rhythm and after that I was just trying to manage the remaining race. It was a really difficult and a long day.”

The stage 3, clearly, hasn’t turned out as expected for the Indian contingent in Dakar 2017. However, with nine days remaining the Indian campaign is far from losing its tracks. Until tomorrow.