Luciano Benavides (Arentina/Husqvarna) has so far had sixth position overall in the 2020 Dakar as one of his greatest achievements in the world’s toughest event. But starting this Friday, he can boast of his first stage victory in the motorcycle category. He did this by overtaking the current overall leader, Skyler Howes, who took the win in stage 6 by setting a great pace in the final set. Until then, the dominant was the North American, but the Argentine surprised with a good finish to bring the cat to the water. However, Howes has many reasons to smile, because after he led yesterday’s test, today he was able to start in fifth position on the track and complete a big stage to make it clear that his bid for victory is very serious, putting more time in all who pursue him and strengthen his leadership.
Luciano Benavides won stage 6 with an advantage of 1’03” over Howes, 2′ 28” over Price, 2′ 33” over Joan Barreda and 2′ 47” over Kevin Benavides. Despite this, the general continues to be very tight and many things can happen from stage 7, a new marathon stage at the last minute after the last organizational route change due to rain, before the riders enter the dreaded ‘Empty Quarter’ room), an unexplored territory full of sand dunes.
In the sands, Joan Barreda will have to attack and will have his options. So far, after yesterday’s big scare, when Toby Price ran over his helmet after the Spaniard fell, the Torreblanca native has made up 1’30 on overall leader Howes, who will start in second place this Saturday starting in the special , with no more marks in the sand than the one left by Luciano Benavides.
Barreda is now 10’54” overall, a good distance to continue targeting everyone in the remaining 8 stages. Despite this, he won’t have to wait long to find the day to hit one of his famous -attack. He can’t give in much more. The days are counting and the time has come for the man from Torreblanca as part of a group of favorites in which, outside the leader Howes, is Toby Price (2nd in 3’32”), Kevin Benavides (3rd in 7 minutes) and Van Beveren, Klein and Quintanilla, all 12 minutes behind the leader. Sanders, one of the favorites from the start, is still far away, at 19’48”. However, Daniel (GasGas) should not be left behind. He may be preparing an attack from the back. Stage 7 could be good for it starting from 8th position.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
