Monster Energy Honda Team podium lock-out in the first Rallye du Maroc stage

Stage one was a really long one. Really windy out there. I was thinking at one point they were going to cancel the stage. As a racer you couldn’t see very far in front of you. Once Joan caught me, we rode together all day. He did a really good job opening, but we also had some lines to look at. Unfortunately some of the other guys lost time today. It’s only the first day. We have four more days. We are going to stay focused and make it to the end.

I think the strategy we decided to take yesterday was not bad, the four of us were leading almost the whole race, but I made a mistake by not following the tracks and following my own line. It was a wrong decision that took me some time to get back on track. I dropped a few minutes, but even though it wasn't the perfect day, it's not too bad and I think I'm in a good starting position for tomorrow's stage.

Today was the real start to the race. It wasn't an easy first stage, there was a lot of dust, poor visibility, fast tracks and also parallel tracks with some complicated off-piste tracks. I felt good, with a very good pace. It's very important to start the race well, on the right foot, and the truth is that I'm very happy with the way I rode the bike, very comfortably, and I’m also pleased with the result.

I'm really happy with today. At the beginning it was complicated because there was a lot of dust from the riders who had gone out in front. Then, in the dunes, I pushed hard and the bike responded perfectly with a good pace, I felt really good. After the dunes I saw that some riders were having trouble finding the right direction with difficult visibility due to a sandstorm. I kept a cool head and I think it was the best decision. Then the navigation got better and I was able to finish a good stage.

The strategy we followed yesterday paid off today. We thought that in this first stage it would be good to start a little bit behind because there has been no tourism in Morocco for a long time and I thought that there would be no visible tracks, that it would be difficult to navigate. The last time we came through the Erg Chegaga was long time ago and we thought, that it would be good to start a bit further back. Tomorrow will be the opposite and we'll have to see how the day goes, which we hope we can finish without any complications.