the salmantino Lawrence Santolino (Sherco) won this Monday in the first online motorcycle stage of Morocco Desert Challengeof 233 clocked kilometers between Plage Blanche and Assa (Morocco).
The Spaniard attacked in the first kilometers of the stage and took a 35-second advantage over his teammate, the Portuguese. Rui Gonçalveswhich is still the leader of the general classification, and 13:17 minutes compared to the Australian Rodney Faggotter (Yamaha).
In this way Santolino is moving up the positions after a mistake made in the prologue stage last Sunday which cost him a lot of lost time. Now he is second, 5:02 minutes behind Gonçalves.
“There is no link at the end of the bivouac, so that is a positive point. The fog delayed the departure until the helicopters could take off, it took us an hour and a half. I was offended by the online output; if I had started consecutively in fourth position, I would have had more time”, commented Santolino.
“We are all together until kilometer 60. I have evaluated and I have decided to attack to set my rhythm. All but my teammate Rui Gonçalves fell, bringing it to my dust almost to the end. In the last kilometers I tried to set a higher speed to get more difference, which was a few seconds, but enough to start together”, he said.
This Tuesday’s stage is the longest rally with 416 hour kilometers and not a service.
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.
