DAKAR RALLY

Stage 7 of this Rally took in 660 kilometres, with 3 check points along the way. From Zouerat to Tichit travelling on sand dunes of various sizes, and with camel grass which felt as if the bikes were hitting stones. Earlier there had been rain which made some stretches rather sticky for the bikes, with horizontal sand in their faces, making it a very hard section indeed. Once again helicopters not in evidence very much, due to heavy work load. Ended up with all the leading bikes driving together to be able to help each other when needed. A large number of the bikes were stuck in the Dunes and some got lost, with one biker taking over 22 hours to complete the Stage. David Fretigne (Fr) on his Yamaha on his lighter bike won Stage 7 for the bikes, but Marc Coma regained the over all lead.
In the Cars section Bruno Sabi in his Nissan was in the lead but damaged his car, and it is Stephane Peterhansel (Fr ) in his Mitsubishi who is now in the over all lead. Like the Motorbikes, the leading cars all drove together to help out. Luc Alfand (Fr) is now in 2nd place. Most drivers had still not been clocked in at the end of the stage by the time it got dark, and mechanics had to work around the clock to try to get the bikes in tip top shape again, if at all possible. There were 450 entries in this Rally which takes 16 days covering 8 countries. This last stage in Mauritania was so bad that Stage 8 has been seriously curtailed to just over 130 kilometres.
As for the Trucks - there are 14 Trucks stuck in the Dunes in Stage 7, and they are supposed to be the backup for all the cars and motorbikes!
This is a seriously MUST SEE programme.