up a cocktail of sand for 360km, before they got the chance
to savour a flavoursome Pisco Sour!
Stage 8 started with fesh-fesh and was followed by an
intermittence of beaches for almost 80 kilometres. Then
came the real challenge, a chain of dunes to be crossed
to reach the finishing line of the day, care had to be taken
to avoid stalling in the formidable “subida de los burros”.
The dunes of Ica, already partially visited during stage
two, were more comprehensively explored, with the aim
of submitting the participants to the most demanding of
ascents and descents at around the 300km mark.
Alternating between good and not so since the start of
the Dakar, Walkner distinguished himself perfectly with
his second victory since Lima. As a result, the title holder,
who still had every chance of keeping his crown, finished
just 45 seconds ahead of Quintanilla, another rider who’d
climbed up the general standings.
“Until the refuelling, Toby caught up a lot of time on
me,” Walkner grinned.
“But in the dunes, I tried to push really hard in the
morning. It was a really fast track with not really visible
stones, and I didn’t feel so good, but at the end I felt quite
good and tried to push a lot”.
Ironically, the general classification was now led by
Price, who perhaps put on the finest performance in Pisco
by gritting his teeth and bearing the increasing pain in his
damaged wrist. He was still yet to win a single stage.
“Today, I knew it had to count,” Price fought back the
pain in his wrist.
“That was my maximum today, so any more than that,
well … I can’t do any more. My wrist is on fire now!”
Like many others before him, Brabec once again fell
foul of the harsh laws of the Dakar. Almost exactly one
year after having broken the engine on his Honda, the
American once again was forced to exit the rally for the
same reason, a heart-breaking blow for a rider who, up
until that point, had ridden the perfect race and was
dreaming of being the first representative from America
Pic: Red Bull
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