Ricky Brabec wins his first world championship stage

It was very hard for me at the beginning of the special; there were many bumps and I had a lot of difficulty getting the bike to do the things I wanted to. I had to change the way of riding to try not to hurt my hand, going much slower and consequently I lost a lot of time. It was very hard and I think that starting tomorrow could be much worse. I've tried, but I think the smartest thing to do, even though I’ll lose all chances of winning the world championship, is to take care of this hand, to be able to make it to the Dakar in good condition.

Today was a very fast stage and with a lot of stones in the first part and I wanted to take it easy in that section. Then, with about 30 kilometres of dunes I think I did a good job. I am happy with the starting position for the second part of the marathon. Today we had to take care of the bikes, which have been going very well and haven’t given us any problems.

I had a tough time over the previous days with a bad cold that meant that I didn’t feel at all comfortable over the first day, but I think that the heat has done me some good. I’m really happy to have won this first stage in the world championship and for the two final stages we will see if we can help the team get a result. The navigation today was pretty difficult in some spots. It was a really fast track today so it was fairly easy to look down and take your time. Some parts were really confusing with all the tracks going in every direction, which was tough. The bike feels good. The rougher terrain for me is better. I was raised in California and our deserts are pretty rough so I’m used to that and it’s one of my strong points. We’ll see what tomorrow has to bring. I can open the track well and get a top five in the stage. The speed is there for us; it just comes down to navigation at that speed, which is tough. We’ll get there eventually. I’m still learning how to go fast and read the roadbook at the same time. We’re working on it.