Cyril Despres under control heading into Dakar

The Tambacounda ‰ÛÒ Dakar stage had to be completed without trouble and Frenchman Cyril Despres cruised in with victory in site. Unfortunately the Dakar had another victim today when Eric Aubijoux suffered a heart attack in the transport section and passed away. Mission accomplished for Cyril Despres, who only timed 5th of the day, but will start at Lac Rose with a 36-minute lead over teammate David Casteu. The day‰Ûªs special has been won by Brazilian Jean De Azevedo, who compensates for a rally made difficult from the start by a long list of break-downs. Well aware that incidents may happen anytime on the Dakar, as demonstrated by the withdrawal of Marc Coma yesterday, Cyril Despres did not take any chances en route to Dakar. Having started first of this one-before-last stage, the Frenchman rode in the lead accompanied by Chris Blais but did not push his KTM too much. On arrival, the leader in the overall rankings had achieved 5th fastest time, 7‰Ûª03 behind winner of the day Jean De Azevedo. The Brazilian wins the second special stage of his career after winning in Tambacounda in 2005. He is ahead of Poland‰Ûªs Jacek Czachor at 2‰Ûª and Latvian Janis Vinters who is more than 5‰Ûªbehind. The scare of the day was for David Casteu. Victim of a fuel injection problem in the long stretch leading to the start of the special stage, the Frenchman thought he might actually loose his second place in the overall rankings threatened by US rider Chris Blais. Chance and dense traffic on the road led to the fact that the special stage was postponed by half-an-hour. It was just the time the inhabitant of Nice needed to repair his KTM and leave on time. He finishes 5th loosing only 5‰Ûª on Blais, arriving 3rd. In the overall rankings, Despres is now 36‰Ûª09 ahead of Casteu and 53‰Ûª01 in front of Blais. There are now 16 km left to be driven without trouble before the Frenchman can win his second Dakar after a first victory in 2005. Marc Coma (KTM Repsol) confirmed in a press conference today he is doing well after his crash yesterday. ‰Û÷I spent the night in the hospital,‰Ûª Coma said. ‰Û÷I am happy I didn‰Ûªt seriously hurt myself. Only my neck still hurts. I will go home to Barcelona to have medical checks for that. Everybody in the Dakar knows something like this can happen, even when you are the leading rider. I feel sorry for myself and my team, because I am sure I could have won. As soon as the doctor says it is okay, I will start training for next year‰Ûªs Dakar. We have learned new things and gained more experience. I will come back even stronger.‰Ûª Once in Dakar, the riders found out about the sad news concerning the death of Eric Aubijoux. The French rider was taking part in his sixth Dakar and was the victim of a cardiac arrest on the course of the liaison, just 15 kilometres away from the finish. Main Photo: Cyril Despres cruised in
Credit: van Oers J