Stage 12 was undoubtedly the longest and the most challenging stage of the 38th edition of the Dakar Rally. The 2016 edition so far had been dominated by the KTMs and the Hondas, but it changed during the penultimate stage. Team Yamaha's Helder Rodrigues was off the leash from the time he started the stage. Rodrigues, after winning yesterday's leg, has now moved to 5th position overall. Despite getting a penalty of three minutes, Rodrigues finished 4'32" ahead of Toby Price, who finished the stage in second position.
The funniest, and also the most heart-wrenching, thing that happened during the stage was the TVS Sherco rider Alain Duclos losing his helmet. After a fall around 290kms off the starting line, the French rider had stopped to repair his bike, and just when he was about to resume racing, his helmet had disappeared. This left him with no other option than to wait for a miracle to happen, as the authorities don't let any rider ride without a helmet, for obvious reasons. This meant a penalty of an unbelievable 6 hours. Where the stage winner Rodrigues finished the stage in 6:00:24, Duclos was last at the stage and his time was 13:21:01.
Team KTM worked in a quite unprofessional manner as Antoine Meo, who won the stage 11, started the stage slow for his teammate Price to catch up. Trying to do this, he soon was out of the overall top three, as the Husqvarna rider, Pablo Quintanilla, registered a 4 minute gain over Meo after WP1. The gap remained more or less the same till next 250kms.
After taking a fall just 20 kms before the finish line, Meo crossed the line almost 35 minutes after the stage winner Helder Rodrigues. This, clubbed with the time he generously lost to let Toby Price go ahead, gave Quintanilla enough lead over Meo in the overall standings.
Also Read: Rookie Meo Wins Stage 11; Goncalves Calls It Quits
This meant that after the stage was over, Meo was the 21st fastest rider during the stage, and Duclos was forced to slip to 42nd position overall.
After the penultimate stage of the Dakar 2016, these are the overall top 10 riders:
1. Toby Price (KTM) - 46:13:26
2. Stefan Svitko (KTM) - 46:51:05
3. Pablo Quintanilla (Husqvarna) - 47:06:36
4. Kevin Benavides (Honda) 47:10:54
5. Helder Rodrigues (Yamaha) - 47:10:55
6. Antoine Meo (KTM) - 47:26:16
7. Adrien Van Beveren (Yamaha) - 47:50:08
8. Farres Guell (KTM) - 48:07:56
9. Ricky Brabec (Honda) - 48:16:32
10. Armand Monleon (KTM) - 49:30:39
