Coma crashes out as Despres takes over Dakar bike lead

TWO days from the arrival in Dakar just as the rally was entering Senegal, the motorbike race was hit by another bombshell yesterday with Marc Coma’s serious crash after only 57 kilometres of the special stage.

The leader of the general rankings since the first Moroccan stage suffered a head injury after hitting a tree and was airlifted to hospital by medics.

Cyril Despres takes over as race leader.

“Marc is hurting a lot but he is okay,” said Coma’s team manager Jordi Arcarons. “He hasn’t broken anything. He’s going to have a series of medical examinations in Dakar and then Barcelona.

“The damage to his morale is worse than the physical damage,” added Arcarons.

In the car race, Stéphane Peterhansel maintained his presence at the top of the general rankings without slacking off: he finished second, 26 seconds behind Sainz, who won his fourth stage of the race today.

In the truck race, Ales Loprais in his Tatra was victorious for the first time on the Dakar. In the general rankings Hans Stacey leads Mardeev by more than three hours.

Coma’s mistake came as a huge shock.

Amongst all the challengers for overall victory, he stood out due to his assurance. On the day he stormed the general rankings, between Er Rachidia and Ouarzazate, he put a distance of around 30kms between him and his rivals, giving a feeling that he was in total control.

There was, however, a flaw in the almost perfect plan designed to lead Marc Coma to a second overall Dakar victory. After around 50kms of of the special stage, the Catalan was first seen to blatantly lose his way.

Minutes later, he hit a tree stump on a parallel track 6kms away from the ideal route and was thrown against a tree.

Coma lost consciousness and after a few minutes was picked up by a medical team helicopter.

He was taken to the hospital in Dakar for further examinations.

Cyril Despres, who started out yesterday trailing Coma by almost an hour, inherits the uncomfortable position of general rankings leader by default, in tandem with setting the best time of the day on the special.

The Frenchman leads Casteu by 35 mins 28 secs.

The car race did not experience such radical changes, with leader Stéphane Peterhansel even increasing his lead two days away from the finishing line.

Frenchman Stephane Peterhansel increased his lead over Mitsubishi team mate and defending champion Luc Alphand to 11 minutes and 15 seconds.

Spaniard Carlos Sainz won the stage for Volkswagen.

The Mitsubishi drivers, who have not yet picked up a stage victory on this Dakar, could well return home with nothing in terms of special stage victories, but will be perfectly happy with the first two steps on the podium unless there is an unprecedented unpredictable but possible change in the situation.

Sainz, on the other hand, has a different goal. With his fourth stage success, the Spanish driver has equalled his score in 2006.

Sainz in his Volkswagen Race Touareg beat Peterhansel by only 26 seconds whilst Mark Miller finished third, 2 mins 18 secs behind.

The gruelling desert race wraps up on Sunday in at Lac Rose, a lake outside Senegalese capital Dakar.