Faced with adversity, Joan Barreda thrives like few others in the Dakar Rally.
In the fourth stage, barely two days after breaking the big toe on his left foot, he seemed to ignore the pain in his extremity to melt the stopwatch and tighten the screws on his rivals.
The man from Castellón, who with his 29th stage victory is close to the absolute record in the motorcycle category shared by Stéphane Peterhansel and Cyril Despres (33), won with a time of 4h28m18s that allows him to recover much of the ground lost in the previous special.
The victory was in the air for a long time, since the FIM stewards had to study how much time to give back to the Chilean Jose Ignacio Cornejo, who stopped to help the injured Joaquim Rodrigues and had options to win the stage.
The organization initially reported that he had stopped “for 25 minutes” to attend to his colleague, but a review of GPS data indicated that he only stopped for seven and a half minutes.
The 39-year-old pilot took advantage of his good starting position -he started fifth- to follow in the wake of the best overall, gaining a lot of time in a stage with a lot of sand and many navigational traps.
A technical problem for Mason Klein, who had to stop for 10 minutes to repair his motorcycle's fuel pump, took him out of the general standings and allowed Barreda to move up one position in the standings.
Now he is fourth, 4m30s behind the leader, a Daniel Sanders who, despite the bonuses for being in the lead, lost 4m07s with him at the finish line and two more minutes due to a penalty.
There was a bit of everything in the stage proposed by the organization, with gravel tracks and narrow passes between mountains, but also dunes and sand, a more favorable territory for the Torreblanca rider.
“I am super happy to be able to go out and see that I could push, still managing the pain a bit”, explained Barreda, satisfied with the fact that the pain in the foot did not worsen.
One of his main concerns was gear changes, which precisely require the use of his damaged finger: “You have to live with the pain, get used to it, try to compensate in some way.
When it hurts the most is when I change with the tip.
I try to put my foot further forward, put my whole foot in, and it's easier for me there”.
To try to compete with less pain, Barreda borrowed a left boot from his motorhome partner, the Chilean Pablo Quintanilla -who wears one number more than him, second classified at 16s in the stage.
So you better fit the necessary bandage to keep your finger firm and in place with this emergency solution.
With the mechanics, he has also worked on a modified gear lever to have to hit it less hard.
Despite the tremendous downpour that forced the suspension of the third stage and that flooded the camp in Ha'il, the fourth timed session could be played as normal and without changes to the route.
In a tough Dakar with many script twists, another of those referring to two wheels had to leave.
Joaquim Rodrigues, a Portuguese rider and the first stage winner for the HERO team last year, fell at km 90 and was taken to hospital with trauma to his left leg.
Lorenzo Santolino (Sherco) was ninth in the special, 10m26s behind his compatriot, a result that puts him at the gates of the top ten overall (11th at 28m37s).
The victory makes Barreda the second rider to achieve at least one stage victory in twelve consecutive editions,
Loeb retaliates with a stage win
After suffering all sorts of calamities at the start of the Dakar, Sébastien Loeb, nine-time World Rally Champion (WRC), retaliated with a stage victory on the fourth special.
The Bahrain Raid Extreme driver completed the day in 4h11m34s to claim his 17th Dakarian victory, although his aspirations to win in the general classification remain greatly diminished with a deficit of 1h33m43s over the leader, Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota).
Despite the fact that he had mechanical problems at the end - he lost the power steering with 20 km to go - the Frenchman snatched the victory from Monsieur Dakar, who was 13 seconds away from achieving his 50th victory in his rally, a figure that would place him at the level of Ari Vatanen as the most successful driver also in cars.
Audi's good moment was confirmed by both Peterhansel and Carlos Sainz, third in qualifying on Wednesday, 1m50s behind the winner.
The man from Madrid, now fourth overall, wants to go on the attack and come back after suffering in the third stage due to two punctures and a breakdown.
On a tough day again, another puncture and a somewhat low tire pressure annoyed him a bit, although he was able to cut 16s off his greatest rival, a minuscule scratch given the 32m55s that still separate him from the Qatari.
Yazeed Al-Rhaji,
“Fortunately it has rained, because that way we have not found dust, but we have found many cars.
But overall, happy.
I would have liked to recover more, but we have not been able to ”, Sainz analyzed.
"I'm attacking.
Since Tuesday I have been on the attack, for me all the stages are key, ”he adds about his lagging position in the general classification.
He is not eliminated, he admits it, but he does not want them to continue passing stages without cutting distances with the final objective.
Argentine Orlando Terranova, Loeb's partner in the BRX and co-driven by Barcelona's Alex Haro, had to turn around and return to the bivouac with only 20 km after the special.
The pilot suffered from an injury to the T4 and T5 vertebrae after hitting the ground forcefully after a jump on Tuesday's stage and must now assess with the medical services if he can continue.
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