Coma and Despres: KTM’s dynamic duo take 1-2 in Sardegna Rally
Spaniard
Marc Coma and Frenchman Cyril Despres, both double winners of the
mighty Dakar Rally, continued their domination of rally sport this week
finishing the 5-day Sardegna Rally in 1-2 and far ahead of the
opposition.
While Coma registered another triumph on his Dakar-winning KTM 450
Rally bike, Despres tackled the Enduro-style rally with a specially
prepared KTM 530 EXC machine. And just like the 2011 Dakar, the two
riders finished the five-day event just a few minutes apart.
Coma
emerged as the dominant force taking victory four minutes 16 seconds
ahead of his eternal French rival. The domination of the two KTM riders
was underlined by the fact that the third placed Helder Rodriguez of
Portugal finished almost 24 minutes behind the winner.
Other KTM riders to excel were Jacub Przygonski of Poland who
finished in sixth place and Ruben Faria of Portugal, who was Despres’
water carrier in the 2011 Dakar who finished eighth. Faria also took
line honors in the final special stage. Just 29 riders from 60 starters
completed the rally,
The 2011 Sardegna Rally in brief
Day One: Porto Cervo to Porto Conte, 330 km including two
specials of 76 km and 65 km respectively featuring a lot of forest
navigation. Coma opened the track over 115 km of liaison before
attacking the timed sections. The Spaniard won both specials while
Despres, who started at 15 in the Open Class, finished just 2 minutes 25
behind him at the end of the day. Faria finished fifth.
Day Two: Porte Conte to Sa Itria on the north coast of
Sardinia including two specials of 76 and 65 km with constant changes of
direction demanding maximum concentration. Coma won the first special
to retain the overall lead: Despres took the second special to trail by
just 1’49.84. Coma said it had been hard to open the rally on two
consecutive days in a rally that was "more like a big Enduro than
rally-raid”.
Day Three: Sa Itria to Arbatax, 260 km including a special of
160 km. Today it was up to Cyril, as the winner of the second special to
open the track and he managed to cut Marc Coma’s overall lead to
1’49.84 saying: "I was feeling good on the bike, the track was nice and I
started to see Marc (Coma’s) dust ahead of me. So I attacked a bit more
and managed to pull back some useful time.” The track took riders along
8 km of high mountain road with a huge sheer drop off to the left. The
second part of the marathon stage meant that competitors could not
change tires before the 100 km mark.
Day Four: Arbatx and Oresei (390 km), with two special stages of 45 km and 60 kms.
In this special Coma was able to extend his lead to 5’03’02 after
overtaking his KTM rival. Despres: "I maybe lacked a little bit of
aggression over some rocky ground (no dust) and Marc was able to get
past me. That meant 40 km of eating his dust until right at end of the
special where I had a momentary loss of concentration and lost a little
more time with the navigation.”
Day Five: Victory in the first special for Cyril Despres and
in the second to teammate Ruben Faria but Cyril’s strong performance was
not enough to completely close the gap on his eternal rival. While
admitting he always starts to win KTM’s French rider said: Once again,
it was very close between Marc and me with difference amounting to less
than a minute a day. Plus it is difficult to be disappointed when you
race such excellent tracks in such a beautiful place. "
Overall Results
1, Marc Coma, Spain, KTM 450 Rally
2, Cyril Despres, France, KTM 530 EXC at 4 minutes 15.81
3, Helder Rodriguez, Portugal, Yamaha, at 23:54.38
4, Stephanie Peterhansel, France, Yamaha
5, Paolo Ceci, Italy, Beta
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