DAKAR 2024

Ross Branch wins and takes the lead in Tosha Schareina's farewell to the Dakar 2024

The Botswana Ross Branch has taken victory in the first stage of the Dakar 2024 and is positioned as the new leader on a day marked by accidents and subsequent abandonments, among which that of one of the favorites stands out: the Spanish Tosha Schareina , who after winning the prologue yesterday, suffered an accident and had to abandon; as well as other 'outsiders' such as the Portuguese Joaquim Rodrigues and the South African Michael Docherty.

Precisely these two were the protagonists at the beginning of the stage: Docherty because he set the best time at the first waypoint of the day, and Rodrigues because shortly after he suffered an accident that left him out. His teammates in Hero, Joan Barreda and Sebastian Bühler, stopped to help him, which put him behind in the partials while waiting for the correction of times at the finish line.

From the second point it was Ross Branch who took the lead of the stage ahead of Docherty himself, while behind them the official Hondas of Pablo Quintanilla, Ricky Brabec and Tosha Schareina took positions. The Spaniard was progressing and was third halfway through the stage until, at kilometer 240, he suffered a fall and hurt his arm.

Branch stayed with him until he was evacuated by medical services, ceding the lead to Docherty. He would not last long, since he suffered a fall at kilometer 318 that would force him to abandon, having to be transferred by helicopter to the Medina hospital.

Ricky Brabec has finished second in the first stage of the Dakar 2024(image above)

Meanwhile, Mason Klein reached the finish line alone after leading the entire stage and pocketing a bonus of 6:21. Thanks to that, Ricky Brabec only surpassed him by 25 seconds after a fantastic stage in which he had caught and surpassed his teammates Nacho Cornejo - who had started only two minutes earlier - and Skyler Howes, who left almost half an hour behind after starting in second position.

The other surprise of the stage came from South African Bradley Cox, who went from strength to strength and entered the finish line behind Brabec and Klein, displacing Cornejo. Very close to the Chilean was the Frenchman Romain Dumontier, with Lorenzo Santolino as the best Spaniard ahead of Kevin Benavides, Daniel Sanders and Martin Michek.

Hours would pass before knowing the time compensations, which gave the victory to Ross Branch with an advantage of almost eleven minutes over Brabec, which places him with almost twelve in the general standings over Brabec and Klein, who are separated by four seconds. With the return of time, Joan Barreda finishes the stage 13th, almost 23 minutes behind his teammate.

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