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 Coma
and Despres: KTM’s dynamic duo take 1-2 in Sardegna Rally
Spaniard Marc Coma and Frenchman Cyril Despres (left}, both double winners of the mighty Dakar Rally, continued their domination of rally sport this week finishing the 5-day Sardegna Rally in 1-2 and far ahead of the opposition. While Coma registered another triumph on his Dakar-winning KTM 450 Rally bike, Despres tackled the Enduro-style rally with a specially prepared KTM 530 EXC machine. And just like the 2011 Dakar, the two riders finished the five-day event just a few minutes apart. Coma emerged as the dominant force taking victory four minutes 16 seconds ahead of his eternal French rival. The domination of the two KTM riders was underlined by the fact that the third placed Helder Rodriguez of Portugal finished almost 24 minutes behind the winner. Other KTM riders to excel were Jacub Przygonski of Poland who finished in sixth place and Ruben Faria of Portugal, who was Despres’ water carrier in the 2011 Dakar who finished eighth. Faria also took line honors in the final special stage. Just 29 riders from 60 starters completed the rally, The 2011 Sardegna Rally in brief Day One: Porto Cervo to Porto Conte, 330 km including two specials of 76 km and 65 km respectively featuring a lot of forest navigation. Coma opened the track over 115 km of liaison before attacking the timed sections. The Spaniard won both specials while Despres, who started at 15 in the Open Class, finished just 2 minutes 25 behind him at the end of the day. Faria finished fifth. Day Two: Porte Conte to Sa Itria on the north coast of Sardinia including two specials of 76 and 65 km with constant changes of direction demanding maximum concentration. Coma won the first special to retain the overall lead: Despres took the second special to trail by just 1’49.84. Coma said it had been hard to open the rally on two consecutive days in a rally that was “more like a big Enduro than rally-raid”. Day Three: Sa Itria to Arbatax, 260 km including a special of 160 km. Today it was up to Cyril, as the winner of the second special to open the track and he managed to cut Marc Coma’s overall lead to 1’49.84 saying: “I was feeling good on the bike, the track was nice and I started to see Marc (Coma’s) dust ahead of me. So I attacked a bit more and managed to pull back some useful time.” The track took riders along 8 km of high mountain road with a huge sheer drop off to the left. The second part of the marathon stage meant that competitors could not change tires before the 100 km mark. Day Four: Arbatx and Oresei (390 km), with two special stages of 45 km and 60 kms. In this special Coma was able to extend his lead to 5’03’02 after overtaking his KTM rival. Despres: “I maybe lacked a little bit of aggression over some rocky ground (no dust) and Marc was able to get past me. That meant 40 km of eating his dust until right at end of the special where I had a momentary loss of concentration and lost a little more time with the navigation.” Day Five: Victory in the first special for Cyril Despres and in the second to teammate Ruben Faria but Cyril’s strong performance was not enough to completely close the gap on his eternal rival. While admitting he always starts to win KTM’s French rider said: Once again, it was very close between Marc and me with difference amounting to less than a minute a day. Plus it is difficult to be disappointed when you race such excellent tracks in such a beautiful place. “
On the eve of the Sardegna Rally Race, Red Bull KTM rider Cyril Despres steels himself for a particularly busy month. Although you might not have had much news from me recently, that doesn’t mean I’ve been sitting at home doing Sudoku puzzles. More likely I’ve been down the gym, or on the bike, preparing for what promises to be an extremely busy month of June. The action kicks off this weekend with one of my favourite races of the year, the Sardegna Rally Race. Apart from Chaleco Lopez, to whom I wish a very speedy recovery, all the top riders will be there, and it looks like there will be a particularly fierce battle for victory. With extremely tight trails and lots of navigation, I have chosen to leave my ‘big’ 450 rally bike at home and have instead entered on a specially prepared 530 KTM EXC enduro bike. Later on in the month I will be participating in the KTM Mania in the South of France, before heading off to Austria for the famous Erzberg Rodeo, an extreme enduro that always attracts a huge and enthusiast crowd of spectators to KTM’s heartland. And just to make sure I don’t get bored between races, I have also entered Infront Sports Media’s three day cycle race in Switzerland. As always I promise to keep you informed of my progress. Stage 2 By winning the second stage of the Sardegna Rally Race Cyril Despres (Red Bull KTM) pulls back to within 1’49.84 of the overall leader Marc Coma. Helder Rodrigues is third at 9.34 while fellow countryman and Cyril’s team mate, Ruben Faria is 7th at 16’29. “The first special was quite overgrown and I must have caught a wild rose or a hit branch because I could taste blood in my mouth. That and a small navigation error cost me a little time overall. Then, having struggled to find my rhythm since the start of the race, this afternoon it all came together. As we have a marathon stage tonight and aren’t allowed to change our tyres I’d planned to take it easy and economise as much rubber as possible. But I was feeling good on the bike, the track was nice and I started to see Marc (Coma’s) dust ahead of me. All of which conspired to encourage me to attack a little and in the end I managed to pull back some useful time. Maybe the fact that I don’t suffer from vertigo helped. For about 8 kilometres we rode along the side of a mountain with a huge sheer drop off to the left. The thing that made me laugh was that at one point there was there were a couple of stones that were marked with two exclamation marks in the road book. Compared with the damage you could have done by falling off the edge they were absolutely irrelevant!
Up until the refuelling point, at around kilometre 100, everything was going more or less according to plan. The navigation wasn’t easy, and Marc had managed to take a little time off me, but I was nevertheless ahead of him and opening the piste when we came into the assistance. Then about 6 kilometres in to the last 50 kilometres I maybe lacked a little bit of aggression over some rocky ground (no dust) and Marc was able to get past me. That meant 40 kilometres of eating his dust until right at end of the special where I had a momentary loss of concentration and lost a little more time with the navigation. Stage 4 Second on the first special of the day, 16 seconds behind Marc Coma, and fourth on the second special (at 1’26), Cyril Despres (Red Bull KTM) maintains his second place overall 6’46 behind Marc, with Helder Rodrigues just holding on to third place (at 24’31). “The first special gives an indication of how hard fought the battle is. To finish within 16 seconds after 44 kilometres, when the slightest mistake can cost minutes, is pretty remarkable. The result of the second special shows how technical the terrain is, with Stephane Peterhansel finishing in second place on his ‘little’ 250. That’s to take nothing away from Stephane’s performance. We know that he can still beat the world’s best on certain types of enduro special, but what he has achieved here is truly amazing!. Tomorrow we have one long last special to take us to the final finish, and as we all know, in rally raid anything can happen.”
Cyril Despres “Well obviously I’m not thrilled to finish second - I always start a race to win. That said I am not too dissatisfied with my performance. I haven’t competed since the Dakar back in January so I maybe wasn’t quite as ‘ready to race’ as my nearest rivals. And once again, it was very close between Marc and myself, with difference amounting to less than a minute a day. Plus it is difficult to be disappointed when you race such excellent tracks in such a beautiful place. As always Antonello and the whole Bike Village team did a really excellent job and you’d be hard pushed to find anybody, amateur or professional, who wasn’t delighted by the week they have spent here. I will most definitely be back next year.” Overall Results Special Stage Results for KTM’s leading riders |
Cyril Despres
reports
Stage
3 Opening the piste this morning after yesterday’s victory, Cyril Despres
was eventually caught by Marc Coma, who went on to win the special and increase
his overall lead to 5’03’02. Despite getting lost, Helder Rodrigues holds on
to third overall, while ‘retired’ veteran Stephane Peterhansel moves up to
sixth place only a few minutes off the podium!
Stage
5 Despite winning today’s first special, and beating Marc Coma on both,
Cyril Despres nevertheless finished the 2011 Sardegna Rally Race second overall
4 minutes 15 seconds behind the Spaniard. Cyril’s team mate Ruben Faria won
today’s second special to finish 8th overall at 37’05.65.