Volkswagen teammates Giniel de Villiers and Mark Miller cruised through the penultimate stage together on Friday to guarantee they finish with the top two placings in the Dakar Rally.
De Villiers and Miller, the overall leaders, finished only 15 seconds apart in a fast 13th stage that wound across hills between La Rioja and Cordoba, part of the world rally championship.
Torrential rain made some of the initial route impassable and organizers slashed it by more than half from 545km to 220km.
PHOTO: AP
Rattled by the crash and exit of rally and team leader Carlos Sainz on Thursday, de Villiers and Miller pulled over on team orders soon after the stage start to allow teammate Dieter Depping of Germany to join them in a convoy.
“I think we can call this a team stage,” de Villiers said. “The most important [point] is to reach the finish, particularly after losing a car yesterday. It’s important for Volkswagen to finish the Dakar in first and second places. We don’t want to take any chances anymore.”
South Africa’s de Villiers led Miller of the US by 2 minutes, 20 seconds overall. NASCAR star Robby Gordon of the US remained third, almost 90 minutes behind.
PHOTO: AP
De Villiers or Miller will win his first Dakar when the rally ends where it began, in Buenos Aires.
De Villiers has had four top 10 finishes in the Dakar, including runner-up in 2006. He was leading in 2007 when his engine broke midway through the race. Miller, a former NASCAR truck driver, was fourth in 2007. Volkswagen hasn’t won the Dakar since 1980.
While the Volkswagens took a safety-first approach, Gordon took the stage lead then suffered mechanical problems. Guerlain Chicherit of France took over for a time, but Nani Roma of Spain won it in a Mitsubishi. Krzysztof Holowczyc of Poland was second, more than seven minutes back, and Chicherit third.
Depping was fourth, Miller seventh and de Villiers eighth.
Marc Coma of Spain was set to win his second motorbike title in three years, holding onto a lead of nearly 90 minutes on defending champion Cyril Despres of France.
Despres won successive stages and his fourth this year, but Coma was only 1 minute, 45 seconds behind. David Fretigne of France was third in the stage and overall.
“There was not a lot of grip, so we had to stand on the bike all the time,” Coma said. “It was very demanding physically, but very entertaining in the final part.”
He was slightly wary of the long final stage, 227km across the flat and wind-swept pampas.
“That’s a lot [of kilometers] and a lot can happen, too,” Coma said.
Meanwhile, doctors treating Spanish biker Cristobal Guerrero, who suffered serious injuries after a fall in the Atacama Desert in Chile on Tuesday, were waiting for final approval from rally officials to transfer him to Santiago for additional tests.
Doctor Oscar Lutz, the director of the Copiapo Regional Hospital, said Guerrero remained in serious condition in an induced coma, but that his vital signs were stable.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Marcus Rashford’s first goals for Aston Villa on Sunday inspired a 3-0 win against Preston North End that sent his side into the FA Cup semi-finals for the first time in 10 years. Rashford struck twice in the second half at Deepdale to end Preston’s stubborn resistance before Jacob Ramsey wrapped up Villa’s long-awaited return to the last four. Villa are to face Crystal Palace — 3-0 winners at Fulham on Saturday — in the semi-finals at Wembley Stadium in London. Revitalized since joining Villa on loan from Manchester United during the January transfer window, Rashford is beginning to show the form that
RSS