Dakar, Stage 5: Shocking sanctions keep Valencia’s Tosha Chalayna from winning the Dakar

I warned everyone before. dakar, Even many competitors. daniel sanders (KTM), Tosha Shalayna (Honda) and ricky brabec (Honda) Three drivers outperformed the others and became the three favorites for victory. dakar. And with seven stages to go, thousands of kilometers to cover, and plenty of danger to face, the race proved them right. An evenly matched three-way battle between two-wheeled greats in the world’s toughest race. However, a few hours after everyone saw it, the organization announced that they would be giving Shalayna a 10-minute penalty and stripping her of the title. It will be difficult for him.

Tosha Shalayna He finished the marathon stage 1 minute and 59 seconds behind the overall leader, which now belonged to Saunders, with a time of 11 minutes and 59 seconds after 10 minutes.

Apparently, Tosha was given a 10-minute penalty for not passing through the designated flag area at the start of the stage.. This penalty seems disproportionate for the Spaniard, as it could cost him his life’s dreams.

In fact, at the end of every bivouac there are two beige flags that mark the start of the stage, which is just before the start of the time special. These flags indicate that you are already in that special, and from there you begin to be governed by the rules of the stage. Before crossing that line, riders can do whatever they want with their bikes. After that, no.

In fact, unlike the other locations, this was a bivouac for a marathon shelter, which may have confused Tosha, a pilot who was new to the course. He did not pass those flags and headed directly for the exit of the special. And that’s what earned him that severe punishment.

We don’t know what will happen in the Dakar and there are still kilometers to go, but it seems very difficult to get so much time back in such a close race, especially against two opponents like Saunders and Brabec, who rarely fail.

All of this happened after I reached the finish line of the marathon stages (stages 4 and 5). This stage was very complicated as we were unable to change tires and had to do two special stages with the same tires. Tires can take a lot of damage and the key to continuing the fight was to manage them and at the same time not to get sleepy as you need to keep attacking and not waste time.

Tosha He performed well in the first half of the marathon, opening the course in the fourth stage and taking the win, but Saunders warned that he was managing the tires after seeing a number of pilots with scratches on their wheels. The KTM rider then pushed a little harder in the second half of Stage 5, finishing in third place, 5 minutes and 50 seconds behind the day’s winner, the Argentine. luciano benavides. Tosha had to restart the course on a complicated day and was inevitably forced to give up time at the final finish line, 9 minutes and 13 seconds behind the day’s winner, losing just over three minutes to Daniel. But finally the cold water came.

So, the current champion is daniel sanderstook the overall lead again with a time of 2 minutes 02 seconds against Brabec, taking second place from Tosha due to the Valencian’s penalty. That third place could have gone to Edgar Canet, who was fourth the day before, but it wasn’t because of the problems he was having. Luciano Benavidez was third with a time of 5:55, while Tosha moved from second to fourth with a time of 11:59.

edgar canet Having had to stop midway through the special due to tire foam issues, but after losing over an hour, we resumed our march, albeit with significant time loss, and hoped to reach the end.