Dos Sertoes Rally. 10th stage
VICTORY FOR MARC COMA ON THE FINAL STAGE OF THE
RALLY DOS SERTOES
The Repsol rider finishes fourth and regains the position
he lost yesterday in the overall classification. Jordi Viladoms
was third today and sixth overall in his category
The Rally Dos Sertoes concluded today with another stage victory
for Marc Coma. The Repsol rider won the 130km special, and
recovered the fourth place that he lost yesterday to Rubén
Faria in the overall classification. Jordi Viladoms finished
third and ended the rally in sixth position in his category,
24th in the overall classification, after an engine breakdown
on the marathon stage.
A large part of today`s stage was along a beach on the Atlantic
coast, riding a picturesque zone of sandy white coastline
before once again heading inland to a zone full of dunes and
aquifers. The special went along a fast track that became
sandier and sandier right to the very end. The particular
difficulty on this stage was that once the riders left the
coast there was no navigation with the roadbook and the participants
could only orientate themselves by GPS, with an obligation
to follow the given route step by step with no possibility
of being able to short cut at any point.
The finishing line was in a small shanty town called Sao
Miguel de Gostoso, and from there there was a liaison to Natal,
where the podium was erected and where the rally came to an
official end.
Quotes
Marc Coma >>
“I am pleased, because it is always good to end a rally
winning the final stage. We have shown that if things go well
and we have no problems, we can be in the lead. Today at last
we had a stage that was bit different, with a little sand
and some dunes.
I was grateful for the change in terrain because it was more
fun and it was a picturesque special. It was a stage for everybody
to enjoy. It took us a few days to pick up the pace, but then
things went OK. It was a pity that we had the tyre problems
because it has affected our result a lot.”
Jordi Viladoms >>
“Today we had a stage that was very different from the
rest, it was a very pictureque special, along white sandy
beaches. We even had a zone with dunes, and before that some
tracks along the beach. Today everything was sandy and things
went very well.
I enjoyed myself riding today, since I felt better in the
sand and I was able to open the throttle more than on the
other days. The important thing is that we were also able
gettting more miles under our belts, to see what this race
is like, and get to know it a little, since it is a raid with
many variables that we were not familiar with. It is a race
where starting it and doing it well is very complicated, thinking
about future races, we already know a little about what we
will find.”
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