Honda riders dig deep on demanding Dakar opening stage

Today was the first real stage, it wasn’t so tricky in terms of navigation, there were a lot of stones, but it was a normal stage to start. Skyler had a small crash at the beginning which bent his handlebars and he finished in ninth. It wasn’t the best result, but the damage caused him to lose some time. Adrien finished eighth, he had a small problem with the front brake, but I’m sure that tomorrow he can do much better. Also, Happy Birthday to Adrien today. Tosha ended the stage in fourth, he lost some time on the first section and then he recovered some minutes to put himself in a good start position tomorrow. Ricky did a really good stage and he enjoyed the rocky terrain. Our goal was to get through the first day and I’m quite happy with the result.

It’s the first official Dakar stage and I’m exactly where I want to be. I don’t want to open this early, but I also don’t want to start at the very back. I’m happy where I’m at, looking forward to stage two and the rest of the rally. Overall, the team is looking good and the mechanics are doing a good job. Tomorrow, I’ll be happy to leave the bivouac and start heading North getting into some cooler weather. I don’t think there was any strategy for me today, for me personally, it was just to make it to the end of the stage with no mistakes and be consistent throughout the day, which I think I managed that fairly well. I’m going into stage two happy, exactly where I want to be and although I not sure when the race will start, we’re pushing hard already, so we’ll see what happens tomorrow.

Stage one was a bit of a frustrating day for me, I started in the wrong place and got stuck in the dust in the first part and I couldn’t see, hit a big rock and had a big crash, so I bent the bars pretty bad which made it really hard to push. But, everything’s all good, it was a bit frustrating as it was hard to push my maximum, but I’m glad to be at the finish line of stage one and looking forward to the rest of the first week.

It was a tough first day. The navigation was tricky, it was quite stony and I lost the front brake after about 30 kilometres. This was tough and made it quite a challenge, but this is part of the Dakar and it can happen. It wasn’t easy, mainly in the dust, as you can’t see far in front and you can’t really anticipate your braking points. I then had some clear air, managed to pass the group in front of me and I could ride normally again. I’m happy, I did my best.

Today, we started the first stage, it was not so easy as it was very windy and so fast as well. We started further back so it was easier to follow the tracks. I tried to push and passed some riders, so I ended up in the middle of nowhere, I had nobody in front or behind. So to the end I rode alone and got to the finish in fourth. The battle will continue tomorrow.