“A good experience because in the future I think I will
know I can open and it will be OK. Really happy with my
result and really happy to have this opportunity with the
team to come and do this, because it is a really cool.”
Short beat out Frenchman, Adrian van Beveren and his
Yamaha by just 40 seconds, in what was regarded as the
closest battle of the event. It all came down to the final
stage when van Beveren found himself in difficulty after
taking an incorrect route through a dry riverbed.
“I rode really fast to try to catch Andrew (Short),” ex-
plained the Yamaha rider. “Then right at the end I lost 2
or 3 minutes in the riverbed.
“I’m disappointed because I pushed so much through
all the special to make the difference – it is a shame to
have this mistake at the end. It is difficult to take back
seconds and so easy to lose minutes. It is like that.”
The 2019 Silk Way Rally was a great result for the Red
Bull KTM team with Luciano Benavides and Laia Sanz
also claiming great results.
Benavides put in an impressive performance throu-
ghout the event to claim fifth place overall and top the
Junior class. Continuing to learn and gain experience,
the young Argentinian rode maturely, often bouncing
back from small navigation errors to complete each stage
consistently and secure his solid top-five result. With two
rounds of this year’s FIM championship remaining, Bena-
vides’ goal is to increase his rally knowledge and overall
speed.
“For me, it has been a really good rally,” suggested
Benavides. “It’s been a tough rally, but I have certainly
learned a lot. I made a few mistakes in the last few days
that ended up costing me some time, but I know what I
did wrong and I need to go away now and work on those
areas.
“Overall, I am happy with how I rode, and the bike has
TRAVERSE
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