López wins Dakar Rally Stage 3, Despres takes the overall lead
Francisco López wins his eighth Dakar stage as pre-race favourite Despres takes over at the front.
Defending champion Cyril Despres moved his Red Bull KTM into the overall lead following Stage 3. Image: KTM Images.
Francisco López only started in 30th place, but by the time he got to Nazca he’d already left almost 20 other riders in the dust. ‘Chaleco’ López took his second stage win in three days at the 2013 Dakar.
Leading the field can prove costly. It’s a strategic factor that must be taken into account in the Dakar. Yesterday’s heroes are often today’s losers. And this is exactly what happened to Joan Barreda and his fellow travellers towards the start of the stage.
Yesterday’s winner was followed by Pedrero, Fish and others as he carefully performed his duties. He avoided the most dangerous pitfalls by focusing 110 percent on the road book, meaning he could only maintain a leisurely pace.
Meanwhile, the most experienced riders started quite far back but they seized their chance to overtake the entire field without having to wrack their brains navigating.
And few are better at this than López, the leading group went through the km 39 checkpoint at no more than 50 km/h, but Chaleco blasted onwards at 100 km/h. The Chilean was rewarded with his eighth Dakar win, the second of this edition.
“The stage was very different from what we went through during the first two days,” he commented. “I started from afar and went flat out throughout the stage in an attemt to catch up with Cyril Despres, which I think I managed to do.
“I focused on navigating and finding the way points and everything went well. But tomorrow’s stage will be different at the front of the race, so I’m taking things one day at a time.”
But he didn’t take over the lead. Cyril Despres is no slouch either when it comes to experience and strategy, and he’s got a knack for recognising the key points where he can make the difference.
Today’s third place behind Chaleco and Paulo Gonçalves was enough for him to take the overall lead with a margin of 2:51 over López, 4:59 over Pål Anders Ullevålseter and 6:03 over Olivier Pain.
As for the Aussies, Rod Faggotter was the big mover, up to 20th overall after finishing Stage 3 in 18th. Todd Smith is 24th overall after coming home 19th today, Matt Fish is now 31st overall after finishing 40th in stage, Grabham is 32nd overall and was 36th in stage, Warren Strange is 33rd overall and was 32nd in stage, Troy O’Connor is 40th and was 41st in stage, Simon Pavey is 56th overall and was 69th in stage.
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