Stage 5 saw riders complete Part II of the first marathon stage of #dakar2016 and Toby Price Racing was the day’s hero, who dealt best with the dizzying altitude, as he notched his second stage win of this year’s race.
Price took charge early and led from the early checkpoints right through to the finish. KTM riders were on form today, with Orange bikes dominating the top three spots of Stage 5, with Stefan Svitko and Matthias Walkner taking 2nd and 3rd behind Price.
Dakar rookie Antoine Meo was the second quickest of the day, just over two minutes behind Price, however a 5min penalty saw Meo drop back to 8th for the Stage.
Due to the fantastic efforts today, KTM has moved up to take three of the top five places in the general standings. Price now sits 3rd behind Goncalves and Svitko, with Barreda Bort and Walkner rounding out the top five.
Toby Price – “I didn’t expect to get that far ahead. This marathon stage was definitely difficult. Today was a little bit tricky with the navigation. I had to stay on top of the game. I caught a couple of other guys and got in some dust. I made a couple of little errors in the end there, because I was a little too worried to take my eyes off the road. It was a pretty crazy track. All in all, we’re stoked. I didn’t expect to be that far ahead for the day. I caught a couple of guys, but I thought the other guys in front were on a good pace. We’re stoked. We’ve got another long day tomorrow and we’ll see how we do. The track was just like big open roads, so on most of it you could get on the gas and go pretty good, but then on probably the last thirty or forty kilometres it was pretty hard navigation and I was trying to stay on top of things. We just tried to push when we could and try to hold back when we had to, but we’ve come away with a good result, so it’s a good day. I know we’ve got the stage win, but I’m not too sure where we are overall, but we’re stoked and happy with everything. We’ve just got to keep pushing along and do what we can. Fingers crossed, but there’s still a long way to go. We can’t count on things just yet. Today is only day five. We’ve got another seven or so stages to go and it’s a long way. Anything can happen between now and then. We’ll just try and make the right calls when we have to and push when we need to, so we’ll see how we go. The bike is good. I didn’t crash or do any damage to the bike. It’s running really well. The guys have done a really good job. All is good, just the tyres were starting to get worn out at the end and it was hard to hang in there on those slippery roads, but it made it a bit of fun”.
Photo Credit: Red Bull Content Pool / Bauer E./RallyZone
STAGE 5:
1st – PRICE // KTM
2nd – SVITKO // KTM
3rd – WALKNER // KTM
4th – BARREDA BORT
5th – QUINTANILLA
6th – JAKES // KTM
7th – RODRIGUES
8th – MEO // KTM
9th – PEDRERO GARIA
10th – DUCLOS
15h – VILADOMS // KTM
21st – SANZ // KTM
GENERAL STANDINGS (After Stage 5):
1st – GONCALVES
2nd – SVITKO // KTM
3rd – PRICE // KTM
4th – BARREDA BORT
5th – WALKNER // KTM
6th – BENAVIDES
7th – FARIA
8th – QUINTANILLA
9th – MEO // KTM
10th – DUCLOS
19th – SANZ // KTM
22nd – VILADOMS // KTM
