Matt Fish landed his first stage podium and currently sits sixth outright in the 2013 Dakar Rally.

The grueling 2013 Dakar Rally is in full-swing with stages one and two now in the books, Australia’s Matt Fish has been impressive in these early stages finding himself ranked just outside of the top five overall.

Francisco Lopez of Chile took out the stage one motorcycle class win, his second consecutive opening stage victory after winning the 2012 opener in Mar del Plata before eventually withdrawing during the eighth stage.

Taking the runner-up spot in stage one was the Yamaha-mounted Frans Verhoeven, closely followed by Pablo Quintanilla and Patricio Cabrera who finished third and fourth respectively, just ahead of defending champion Cyril Despres in fifth place.

Stage two of the 2013 Dakar Rally saw a small collective navigational mistake by those at the front of the race, which gave the other riders a chance to make up valuable time during the stage.

Following stage one winner Lopez, Despres took a detour around a huge dune at the 75 kilometre mark, but this move proved more difficult than expected for the defending champion to get back on track. In the meantime, Joan Barreda never strayed from the course.

Barreda showed it wasn’t a fluke by riding his Husqvarna to the second stage win of his career, made even sweeter by the third place of Fish. Joan Pedrero, a rider who’s more used to riding in the shadow of his leader Marc Coma, also seized the opportunity to finish second.

Despres’ mishaps cost him over eight minutes with regard to the new general classification leader. His teammate Ruben Faria lies second in the overall ranking, 5:36 down on Barreda.

With his impressive third place stage two finish, Australia’s Fish now sits sixth overall in the standings, just one spot behind defending Dakar Rally champion Depres.

Fish is riding under the orders from his team and knows the importance of helping his teammates, but said he is glad to have finally landed his first stage podium in the Dakar Rally.

”There was such a lot of dust and navigation but I’m happy with the result,” said Fish. “I’m under orders from the team, and it’s important to be a help to my team-mates. I’m really glad to have got my first podium place in a stage of the Dakar.”

Fellow Australian competitors Ben Grabham, Rod Faggotter, Warren Strange, Todd Smith, Troy O’Conner, Simon Pavey and Andrew Scott currently hold 19th, 31st, 33rd, 36th, 46th, 54th and 167th positions respectively.

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