Schareina strikes again with third Dakar 2026 stage win

It was a strange stage today, this was supposed to have been an easy one, but in the end it was more difficult than we expected. The first kilometres were in the canyons and Daniel Sanders and Luciano Benavides made a navigation mistake early on. Because of this we then had to change our strategy because Ricky and Tosha then rode together with them. Tosha didn’t have much option to break away, so just tried to do his best to win the stage. Tomorrow will be tough with more than 100 km in soft dunes, but we believe he can do well opening the stage. Ricky has a good start position for tomorrow, so let’s see what he can do starting in fourth. Finishing in fifth, Adrien made some small navigation mistakes and Skyler who was in fourth, rode smoothly and he also had a good stage. It’s an important stage tomorrow, let’s see what our riders can do and hopefully Ricky can keep pushing to keep within the fight at the front.

I was expecting a bit of a different outcome on the day. From the description it just said it was kind of fast. I thought Luciano did a good job yesterday opening all by himself and that he would have no problems today. Maybe around 30 or 40 km, I caught them. They made a small mistake and from then we all rode together in a big group. Last night before bed, we had a perfect strategy but obviously it didn’t work out. A couple of riders made small mistakes, but at the end of the day I feel like I’m still in a good spot for tomorrow. At least for now, I have Tosha and Daniel in front of me to make the lines. It looks like I’m third, which gives me a six-minute gap to make a good push tomorrow.

I know today we really needed to manage the tyres as there were a lot of rocks at the beginning. Edgar Canet caught up to us and at the refuelling he had smashed his wheel, cut his tyre and had a bunch of issues, so I knew that you could definitely go overboard here. It was important to me, especially after the last marathon stage to try to do my best, to manage everything and make sure to get to this bivouac with the bike in good shape. I think I did a pretty good job.

I made a navigation mistake at the beginning, like some riders, it was a bit confusing. After that I pushed and rode fast upto the refuelling. And then after the refuelling, because I know that I'm further down the overall standings, I pushed again. I was pulling away from Skyler, but I was a bit scared to be too much further ahead, so I then slowed down towards the end, however I’m pleased with my position today.

It was good for me. They made a navigation mistake early in the morning, so my strategy changed there and I tried to take all the bonuses possible from that moment. It was so dusty. At the last point it was completely straight and so wide open. It’s difficult to fight with the guys when it’s completely straight. In the dunes, I did my best but all the riders were riding together until the end.