Australian Toby Price has taken overall victory with the final stage win at the 2019 Dakar Rally, finishing more than two minutes clear of his rivals.
The man who had been his main rival, Pablo Quintanilla, crashed out of contention on the last day.
The 2019 Dakar Rally came right down to the final stage and a dual for the victory between Price and Chilean rider Quintanilla. With just over 100km to cover and with a gap of one minute to overcome, Quintanilla had to attack the stage to take victory.
But it was to be no fairy tale win for the South American as he fell and injured his foot after just 10km of stage 10 leaving Price, riding with a broken wrist, home and dry to win that famous golden trophy for the second time.
The chances of Quintanilla winning a first Dakar evaporated instantly, but the Chilean got back on his Husqvarna to try and save a podium place. He lost 19 minutes, though, and finished outside the top 10.
Price blitzed stage 10 to finish 2m21s clear of Chilean rider Jose Cornejo, even though price Price was riding with a broken scaphoid (wrist) bone.
The downer for Quintanilla following his fall was a positive for Austrian Matthias Walkner who jumped to runner-up position. Quintanilla came home in third place with US rider Andrew Short fourth.
Laia Sanz finished as top female rider in 11th position.
Ross Branch was best placed Rookie in 13th overall.
“The pain and torture has been worth it,” Price said. “(The pain) feels like there are about five people driving a knife in my wrist. It’s not very comfortable, it’s not very enjoyable.
“I thought I would only be able to do two stages and then pull out and that would have been me done, but the support from everyone back home in Australia, and then having some things go my way and a bit of luck, it just worked out in the end.
“It’s very crazy to sit here and say that we won the Dakar Rally with no stage victories until today. It’s really crazy. I’m over the moon.”
It is Price’s second title and he also finished third in 2015 and 2018.
LEADING FINAL STANDINGS (bikes):
- Toby Price (Australia)
- Matthias Walkner (Austria)
- Sam Sutherland (UK)
- Pablo Quintanilla (Chile)
- Andrew Short (USA)
- Xavier De Soultrait (France)
- Jose Cornejo (Chile)
- Luciano Benavides (Argentina)
- Oriol Mena (Spain)
- Daniel Jager (Bolivia)
Photo by Marcin Kin
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