On two wheels an epic battle was played out for first and second place between Nani Roma and Richard Sainct, both on KTM motorcycles. Although Sainct came on strong in the final stages, he was unable to catch up to Roma's overall time. After seventeen days totalling over 55 hours of driving, only twelve and half minutes separated first place Roma from his second place competitor. Roma was obviously ecstatic with his first Dakar victory stating, "I've often thought about the win, but I can't describe what I feel now. Everything happened so quickly. I first have to eat, have a shower and calm down to understand what's happening to me. But it's a dream."
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| After seventeen days totaling over 55 hours of driving, only twelve and half minutes separated first place Nani Roma from his second place competitor in the motorcycle class. (Photo: naniroma.com) |
Richard Sainct would have liked to win another Dakar; however he is actually lucky to have finished at all after taking a spill at more than 100 km/h on only the fourth stage of the seventeen stage race. He ended up finishing the rally with numerous stitches in his arm. "When I fell, I thought it was finished. I had to fight against myself," commented Sainct after the race, adding, "I'm very lucky to still be here. It doesn't matter; it wasn't my turn this year. I'll be back next year to try [to] regain my title. I'm very happy for Roma. He's been trying to win it for such a long time".
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| Richard Sainct placed second overall but was lucky to have finished at all after taking a bad spill early into the rally. (Photo: richardsainct.com) |
Rounding out the top three for the motorcycle class was Cyril Despres, also on a KTM bike. Although he won four, and was top five in thirteen of the seventeen stages, Despres was unable to recover from a disastrous day during stage eight. "It was the worst day of my life. I had problems with my glasses so I decided to stop but fell at a very slow pace. Nothing serious except that with my knee I pulled the GPS (global positioning satellite) connection. I couldn't reconnect it, so I got lost. Each time I saw a KTM rider I would follow him, but each time we got lost again. That lasted 50 km. Because of that, I ran out of fuel 1.2 km from refuelling."