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French rider Adrien Van Beveren mastered the 48 Hour Chrono for his first stage victory at this year’s Dakar Rally.

The Monster Energy Honda Team rider put in a commanding performance across two days of rallying in Saudi Arabia’s Empty Quarter with victory on an enormous stage six.

It was a stage that would turn things on its head in this vast area of desert that with 650,000 square kilometres of dunes is larger than France but giving staggering endless vistas for a spectacular place for the riders to attack.

No stranger to sand, Van Beveren used his extensive Le Touquet experience to carve out a narrow lead over Honda team-mate Ricky Brabec, getting as far as bivouac F after 513 km of rallying when the clock stopped at 4pm the previous day.

On a stage that demanded so much from the riders physically, basic food rations, no assistance, no phones and a night on the sand in a tent also added to their depleted energy levels. However, with just 112km across the dunes remaining for Van Beveren, Brabec and José Ignacio Cornejo at 7am yesterday, the Frenchman cemented his position at the top of the timesheets as he clawed back a huge amount of time in the overall standings.

Going into the 48h Chrono he had a deficit of nearly 20 minutes and this has now reduced to just over nine as he now starts the second week as one of the favourites for victory.

With lower average speeds across the epic dunes, the riders had one goal and that was to get to the end of this 626km stage back at Shubaytah without making any mistakes.

It was one thing to keep track of the road book and not fall off, but soft sand would also affect fuel consumption too so conserving it would also add an extra element to the already onerous stage.

Chilean rider Pablo Quintanilla fell victim to the latter as he was just 10 kilometres short of the first refuelling point when his bike ground to a halt.

Despite managing to get some fuel he finished in 12th, nearly two hours behind Van Beveren and has now fallen down to 11th in the overall standings. His shot at a podium has diminished but the Chilean remains optimistic to add to his stage victory tally at this edition.

A fan of the whole 48 Hour Chrono experience, it was a solid third place finish for a sleep deprived Ricky Brabec, as it now sees him in the overall lead with just a 51-second gap to Hero Motorsports Team Rally’s Ross Branch as he continues to do battle with the Honda riders at the top of the standings.

Cornejo found his flow on the dunes catching up to stage-opener Joan Barreda early on and with roles reversed he drew upon his impressive navigation skills to complete the rest of the stage setting the tracks for the following riders.

Although his ninth place finish has dropped him down to fourth overall, the Chilean will benefit from a better start position for stage seven in two days’ time.

The rider with the most spectacular moustache in the bivouac, American Skyler Howes, suffered a huge blow to his Dakar, just 39 km into proceedings on Friday and he had to retire from the rally with a mechanical problem.

Once riders got to the finish a skeleton crew from the Monster Energy Honda Team were there to receive them before packing up their bikes to drive them to the next stage bivouac at Riyadh over 853 km away.

The riders were spared such a long road trip and went to the Saudi Arabian capital by plane where they will reconvene with other team members before a much needed rest day tomorrow.

“This stage was really important for me, since we’d known what it would entail I knew that I could do well here in the dunes and make a difference,” said Van Beveren afterwards.

“I went fast at the beginning but emptied the first fuel tank really early so I had to change my riding style and make it smoother to try to improve my fuel economy. I got into a good rhythm and to get the win was nice.

I’m glad I did the 48 Hour Chrono, it was a good experience to tackle this long stage in the dunes. We all arrived completely destroyed, it was really physical but I’m glad that we had this opportunity.

Photo courtesy Honda

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