Dakar : Leg One - 370 km
Eager to take off this 28th edition of the Euromilhoes Lisboa-Dakar 2006, title holder Cyril Despres managed the best time of the day`s 83km special. The surprise however came from the excellent results of the Portuguese privateers with three bikers in the top 10. In the car race, Carlos Sainz stormed to a first ever special success beating Portuguese hero Carlos Sousa.
The Portuguese fans had gathered in numbers around the starting podium close-by the Jeronimo Monastery, to cheer the first competitors taking off for stage 1 of the event. The first competitor to take off was quad rider Antonio Ventura (BOM – n°252), under the interested eyes of Portugal`s president Jorge Sampaio.

But the real action took place, 186kms further south for the start of the timed special. Taking off last due to his number 1 bib, title holder Cyril Despres (KTM – n°1) managed the fastest time on the muddy tracks of the 83km special, in 58`10”. The Frenchman finished his effort with a big smile on the face capturing the first overall leading position of this Dakar.

Despres` main rival wasn`t exactly the one that was expected. Indeed Portuguese privateer Ruben Faria (KTM – n°160) certainly managed the performance of his life. Taking off early, the KTM rider had the fastest time for almost all the morning until ‘Monsieur` Despres showed up. He eventually was beaten for only 4”. His compatriot Helder Rodrigues (KTM – n°55) saw his podium dream vanish when Marc Coma (KTM – n°2) the best rider of the KTM-Repsol team clocked the third best time, at 7”. Like Faria, Rodrigues took advantage of his knowledge of a familiar terrain to finish fourth.

In the leading ten positions were 3 French riders (Despres 1st, Frétigné 6th and Casteu 7th), 3 Portuguese (Faria 2nd, Rodrigues 4th and Goncalves 10th), 3 Spaniards (Coma 3rd, Esteve 5th and Pellicer 8th) and an Australian (Caldecott 9th). David Frétigné (YAM – n°12), who had clinched victory in the four European stages in the last two editions, indeed had to settle with 6th position on a special a lot longer than those of the past few years.

The slight disappointment came from Norway`s Pal-Anders Ullevalseter (KTM – n°5) who captured 32nd place, 6`20 adrift, but the Norwegian will certainly be a lot more comfortable on African soil. The US bikers of the KTM-Red Bull team, Andy Grider (KTM – n°23) and Chris Blais (KTM – n°9) had to settle with 23rd and 31st positions, over 5` slower than the best time of the day.


Tags: dakar, sainz, depres, leader, vw, ktm,