Joan Barreda: “It was a very solid day”

Joan Barreda He finished stage 1 of the Dakar in fourth position, after a great final pace on his favorite terrain, the dunes. It could have been better for him, but a one-minute penalty for exceeding the maximum speed at a point limited to 30 km/h leaves him 45″ behind the current leader, the Honda driver that Ricky Brabec is already working. The man from Torreblanca took care of the MD at the ‘Sea Camp’ in Yanbu and was satisfied with the ‘feeling’ he got with the bike from kilometer 100. Now, he is approaching stage 2 when with caution. He knew this would be “the stage with the most rocks. of this Dakar”, a terrain he admits he doesn’t like and he knows he has to focus on his own navigation to avoid mistakes. “I will try to make it a formality for me”, he pointed out, making it clear that this stage 2 should not be his best day, but an important day to minimize losses in front of other more favorable days.

THE PENALTY

“At the beginning of the special, there on a radar with CP. I entered a little bit at the beginning not very concentrated. In the first kilometers, everything accumulated a bit. And in the change from 50 to 30 km/h I did not see it quickly and I was punished. But from then on I tried to focus a little, be more focused and not make mistakes. And from km 100 I started to flow better and with better sensations. In any case, it was a tough stage, with a lot of soft sand in some places and one place with a lot of rocks, very technical, and the truth is that despite everything it was a good day, a solid day”.

LAST PART OF THE SPECIAL

“It was grittier, more my style, faster. The first part is all the canyons with lots of rocks, plus the test. It always costs me more there. In the first days it was always more difficult for me and then when it was a more open desert and faster stages, I liked it more there”.

CONFIRMATION OF GOOD FORM

“The ‘feeling’ is good, I said that it was before the Dakar that I trained well, that I covered some kilometers, and the sensations I felt were those. It is clear that in the end you have to see it in the race but we have been here for many years and in the end the most important thing is when you have sensations”.

FROM THE BACK

“The fourth position is ok. When we saw that many riders started from the back, everyone was pulling very hard with small differences, with refueling and neutralization we saw that we were all going in very close time. So it’s important to hang on but there’s no point in pushing hard and taking unnecessary risks to gain another minute because the differences are really very small.

STAGE 2

“A priori, as far as we know, it will be a bit rocky. It’s something I don’t like either, but in theory it’s the stage with the most rocks in Dakar and in the end I have to try to make it a formality for me, not make big mistakes and stay focused. We will start in the front group and we will have to be very focused on navigation. Starting from the front, it’s clear that on rocky tracks you have to navigate at your own pace and you have to focus on this type of stage, because on sandy stages you always have tracks at the end, but on stages with there are so many rocks that you have to be very concentrated with a lot of navigation and not following the tracks because in the end you can get lost at any time”.