Consistency was the order of the day on stage 3 yet a rider starting 25th was the days winner . Benavides ’ teammate , Joan Barreda came through to claim victory by almost 2 minutes as Benavides nursed his injured arm to the finish . Adrien van Beveren aboard a Yamaha continued his consistent run and finished third however , both Benavides and van Beveren were given 2 minute penalties and dropped down the stage rankings handing second place to Walkner and promoting Xavier De Soultrait ( Husqvarna ) and Skyler Howes ( KTM ) to 4th and 5th respectively .
The KTMs of Sanders and Price demonstrated a little more pace placing both inside the top ten .
“ Today I think I did a good job ,” said Benavides who said his arm was ok despite the crash the previous day . “ I made 2 or 3 mistakes with the navigation , but still finishing third and leading overall . Tomorrow is the last day , so I will try and do my best to take victory .”
Branch became lost on the stage yet managed a laugh , taking the positives from it , “ I got a bit lost , but that ’ s rally , these things happen . But I had fun . It was a really cool route today , very fast and a good test for the Dakar .”
The final stage saw a rerun of the first day and with it came confirmation that Benavides will be the one to watch come January .
Benavides was on form and held onto his lead with a
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