Bikesportnz

American Ricky Brabec holds onto the overall lead as the final day of the 2024 Dakar Rally approaches.

The 11th stage from AlUla to Yanbu, the final destination on this year’s Dakar required an enormous amount of focus from the exhausted riders in order to complete the 420 km stage as fast gravel tracks, stony plateaus and broken dunes were a mixture that could derail anyone at the last moment.

Honda star Brabec planned to go out on the attack so that he could relax going into the final day and, although his main rival Ross Branch (Hero Motorsports Team Rally), from Botswana, was the fastest at the end of stage 11, the 2020 Dakar winner kept his head down to keep himself firmly at the top of the overall standings.

Leading out on day 11, Brabec slowed in the last 100 km of the special so that Honda team-mate Adrien Van Beveren could catch up and take a share of the bonuses to help his own podium bid.

Although an honourable thing to do, the American profited from over five minutes in bonuses which moved him up from fourth to second on the stage with just over half a minute the final difference to Branch on the timesheet.

With the gap exceeding 10 minutes to Branch overall, barring any issues, 32-year-old American Brabec is on course for his second Dakar victory at the end of stage 12.

“I would say today was my best ride of the rally,” said Brabec.

“The first goal on the Dakar is always to make it to the rest day and then the next goal is to make it to the finish.

“If you finish the Dakar, that’s a win. It’s not easy, especially for the bikes because we’re up at three in the morning and we’re riding all morning, we’re riding all day and we’re getting back to the bivouac late.

“But finishing the Dakar is a win in my book and, if you can win the Dakar, it’s legendary.”

French rider Adrien Van Beveren has spent this week chipping away at Branch for that second spot on the podium and, at the end of play on day 10, had got it down to just a minute.

The Frenchman has opened the way for over 1137 km during this year’s event, 619 km of it on his own, so quite understandably was in no rush to catch up to Brabec and Nacho Cornejo when he left the line on the morning of stage 11 in third.

Although he also had planned to attack, he ended up with a few surprises including a fall from a near miss with a camel which activated his airbag.

His third place finish today has unfortunately increased the gap by four minutes to the Botswanan, who will have the task of opening on the final day. This could though potentially give Van Beveren an advantage to leapfrog him heading into the final kilometres.

Despite not feeling 100%, Cornejo put in a super effort on stage ten when he finished just two seconds behind Brabec and although he caught up to his teammate early on today, 115 km into the special he came to a standstill with a fuel pump issue.

He managed to rectify it but lost over 25 minutes and sadly his chance to fight for the final spot on the podium in what was a cruel blow to the Chilean’s impressive Dakar adventure this year.

Pablo Quintanilla had a fairly steady stage, taking the lead early on but ultimately just made it into the top ten over seventeen minutes down on the stage winner.

The penultimate day of the Dakar Rally is done with the top step beckoning now for one rider.

A short 175 km stage close to the crystal blue waters of the Red Sea will decide who receives the Bedouin trophy with a race to the finish on a rocky desert loop around Yanbu.

Photo courtesy Honda

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