Pic: Red Bull
for the Austrian firm, this was an especially satisfying
triumph with its three official riders on the podium in
Peru. Walkner, the title holder, took second place, while
Sunderland, the winner in 2017, rounded off a podium
that again sees Honda absent.
“It’s very crazy to sit here and say that we won the Da-
kar rally with no stage victories until today,” an exuberant
Price laughed.
“It’s really crazy. I’m over the moon, I’m so damned
stoked. It’s been a long 10 days,” the Australian continued,
explaining that he would have to wait and see what dam-
age has been done to his wrist.
“At the end of the day, the pain and torture has been
worth it. I thought I would only be able to do two stages
and then pull out and that would have been me done, but
the support from everyone back home in Australia and
then having some things go my way and a bit of luck, it
just worked out in the end. It’s been an unreal rally.”
Price laughed that his wrist felt like five people were
driving knifes into it, “It’s not very comfortable, it’s not
very enjoyable, but at the end of the day the victory has
paid off. I’ll forget about the pain now, that’s for sure.”
“There are so many guys that can win this race and we
had strong competitors like Pablo and Ricky Brabec, Sam
Sunderland, Matthias Walkner… everyone is strong. You
can never count anybody out. Kevin Benavides did a great
job and at the end of the day we all fight to the finish line
and it’s been a hard rally,” the KTM rider praised his com-
petitors and acknowledge that the Dakar is truly one of
the toughest sporting events.
While the challengers to KTM’s dominance fell it was
Quintanilla who resisted the KTM clan for the longest
amount of time, before his hopes collapsed due to a fall
on the last stage of this uncompromising Dakar …
TRAVERSE will feature many of the unsung heros of Dakar in the
next issue; those riders who compete for the challenge, who do it
unsupported, who gain little or no media coverage. We'll discover
what it takes, why they do it and whether they'd do it again. Don't
miss TRAVERSE issue 11 out April 14.
TRAVERSE 24