RALLY DAKAR 2023

Joan Barreda achieves a historic victory and Daniel Sanders continues to lead the Dakar 2023

The Spanish Joan Barreda has made history with his victory in the fourth stage of the Dakar 2023, which the Australian Daniel Sanders continues to lead. With his victory, 'Bang Bang' becomes the second rider to achieve at least one stage in twelve consecutive editions, surpassing Cyril Després' 11 and only behind Jordi Arcarons' 13 (1990-2002).

In addition, he allows Spain to equal a historical record set by France by winning at least one stage in 35 consecutive editions of the Dakar (1988-2023), something that the Frenchmen achieved in the first 35 editions of the raid (1979-2014).

The bad news has been the abandonment of the Portuguese Joaquim Rodrigues, who hurt his leg after falling to the ground around kilometer 90. He joins the official abandonment of two of the favourites: Sam Sunderland in the first stage and Ricky Brabec Yesterday. A disastrous day for Hero, as they lost two other tricks: Ross Branch due to mechanical problems and Sebastian Buhler due to running out of gas.

One more day, opening the track has not been as damaging as it used to be in previous editions. Today Daniel Sanders did it after winning yesterday, and he was quickly joined by Skyler Howes and Mason Klein, who from the second waypoint was already setting the best times while accumulating a bonus of 2:39, for Howes' 3:35 and the 3: Sander's 58.

From behind, Joan Barreda caught Kevin Benavides and they began to ride together, with Toby Price further back in no man's land and Pablo Quintanilla joining Luciano Benavides. It didn't take long for the Chilean to become the great threat to Klein's stage victory, with the permission of Adrien Van Beveren and Barreda himself.

As expected, the trio that opened the track began to lose some time in the final stretch of the stage. However, it seemed that Klein's bonuses were going to allow him to take the partial victory despite said loss, since he virtually reached the last WP with a minute and a half to spare.

The surprise came when he saw that not only did he not reach the finish line along with Sanders and Howes, but that Barreda also did it before him. The American left almost a quarter of an hour and Quintanilla did not exceed the Spanish's time either. Only a crush from Van Beveren could prevent the win and it didn't.

Daniel Sanders continues as leader of the Dakar 2023 after the fourth stage(image above)

Thus, with a time of 4 hours, 28 minutes and 18 seconds to cover the 573 kilometers in the Ha'il loop, Joan Barreda achieved his 29th stage win (four of the 33 for Stephane Peterhansel and Cyril Despres), ahead of Pablo Quintanilla in 16 seconds with Skyler Howes at 1:05 once the bonus was applied.

Around two and a half minutes Toby Price and Adrien Van Beveren gave up, with the brothers Luciano Benavides and Kevin Benavides staying just over three and Daniel Sanders losing only 4:07 to more than maintain the lead of the test.

From there, a greater gap opened up, since Lorenzo Santolino concluded the ninth day at 10:26, with Mason Klein losing more than twelve minutes after his final setback. The same left Matthias Walkner, with Tosha Schareina at 14 and Nacho Cornejo delivering more than 16.

Among the rest of the Spaniards, Joan Pedrero is already close to the top 20 overall, Javi Vega is just a minute and a half behind the lead in Original and Sandra Gómez gives up the lead in women by almost 22 minutes to Mirjam Pol.

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