"Today has been a great day," the Spaniard enthused. "I‰Ûªm very pleased because today the plan that we had worked out turned out perfectly. It was a tough day, as I had to push really hard all day, stay really focused, not make any mistakes and give 100% in the area of navigation at the beginning. At the waypoint at kilometre 40 I circled around a bit until Ricky showed up and gave me some references to mark the waypoint. It went really well and error-free with a very fast pace."
KTM's Sam Sunderland was second home on the days stage, 12 and a half minutes adrift of Barreda. The Brit now sits in second overall 10 minutes behind the Spaniard.
‰ÛÏWe knew the first 45 km were going to be tricky, but they were really tricky," Sunderland explained. "There was a lot of vegetation, we were crossing through rivers and trying to find the piste again. It was really tough. We lost 10-15 minutes in the first 45 km and that was a bit frustrating, then in the second part of the special it was good, and I managed to push a bit. We knew it was going to be a tough day and there are still many more to come. We just take each day one at a time, and tick them off as we go. I want to arrive at the finish this year. That‰Ûªs very important for me, and we still have a long way to go.‰Û
