Kevin Benavides consolidates his position in the leading group at the Desert Challenge

Today was better than yesterday, with more pace and better sensations. I felt better reading the terrain in this complicated desert, where it is difficult to ride well without taking risks. We all arrived together, pushing hard. It was a 100% dune stage, which was quite fun on the bike, that hasn’t caused any problems. We continue to get more kilometres under the belt.

It was a good day’s rally; long and very beautiful, with 300 kilometres of dunes. I tried to do the best I could. I felt physically better, with quite a bit of pace and I also tried to push hard and speed up. I saw that I could do it well, although I had to take some precautions. We will continue to ride and put some more kilometres in.

It was a fast day. We don’t really like it so much because it’s so fast and dangerous. It’s hard to read the sand. Sometimes it’s red and orange and white. It’s difficult to know if it’s rolling style sand or if it’s cut. But I’m just glad that we’ve made it back safely and are still in the rally.

This second day I felt more motivated, since I managed to adjust the rear shock much better than yesterday. I had more traction and I was able to cope with it much better. The special was very fast and with great undulations and some big dips from time to time. I didn’t really keep a very fast pace because I did not want to take risks. Tomorrow we will try to go better.

It was a fast stage, with a lot of speed. I felt better than yesterday, but I was riding alone almost all day, so it took me a while to find a good pace. I think that, other than that, we are improving. For the next few days we will be looking to keep improving.