Here’s high-res images and video recaps from Dakar stages 7 through 11. KTM’s Marc Coma and Cyril Despres continue to contest first and second places despite giving away stage victories both to Aprilia and Jonah Street. At ninth place, Quinn Cody is the highest ranked American thanks to a string of consistent top-12 aboard his Honda CRF450X. :continue:
American Jonah Street has won stage 9 of the 2011 Dakar. “It’s awesome, totally awesome,” Jonah said shortly afterwards. The victory is the second Dakar stage win of his career and his first this year, he’s now 15th overall. “It’s what we come here to do, to do the best we can and first is the best you can do, so to win a stage pretty special.” :continue:
Finally, high-res photos of Francisco Lopez riding his Aprilia RXV 4.5 in the 2011 Dakar. Lopez won his first stage of 2011 today, going head-to-head against Marc Coma in the process. The result leaves him and Aprilia third overall, the same position they totaled for last year’s race, where Lopez won two of the 14 stages. :continue:
As of this morning, with Stage 6 just setting off, KTM’s Marc Coma leads the 2011 Dakar closely followed by teammate Cyril Despres. KTM’s continued dominance even with this year’s 450cc engines isn’t surprising, but the spread of the field just below those two leaders is. There’s also an Aprilia, BMW and Yamaha in the top five overall, while BMW won yesterday’s stage with an Aprilia just two seconds behind. Here’s every high-res photo and comprehensive video material from Dakar’s first five days.
Photos: Marcelo Maragni/Red Bull Photofiles
Update: video material from stage 6 added.
The Dakar is, much to our chagrin, impossible to cover effectively. Virtually no cohesive and certainly no comprehensive material escapes the wilds of Argentina and Chile, but that doesn’t mean that if you’re enthusiastic and determined, that you can’t get some idea of what’s happening in the race, which started yesterday and runs through January 16.
Photos: Marcelo Maragni/KTM/Red Bull Photofiles
It’s amazing the unrealism that using a flash to shoot action at sunset can achieve. These photos of Marc Coma practicing for the Dakar in Spain aboard his KTM 450 Rally look like some sort of museum diorama, you know, the kind with a sabertooth tiger pouncing on a caveman in front of a painted backdrop full of wooly mammoths, just here with more bikes. Yes, yet another set of a Red Bull-sponsored rally bike (Is there anyone competing in the Dakar that’s not sponsored by Red Bull? Except of course Jonah Street.), but when the action is this epic, who cares? :continue:
Let’s do some word association. If we say “Cyril Despres,” what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? The Dakar, right? The 36-year-old Frenchman only started racing Enduro in 1998 and entered the rally for the first time, while it was still being held in Africa, in 2000. By 2002 he’d won his first stage and in 2005, riding for KTM, he won the rally outright. He won again in 2007 and in 2010, success he hopes to repeat when the 2011 Dakar begins in Buenos Aires on January 1. Here, Red Bull profiles its extraordinary athlete and we’ve thrown in 41 high-res images of Cyril in action, both in rallying and Enduro, for good measure.
Photos: Samo Vidic/Andre Chaco/Jorge Ferrari/Marcelo Maragni/Mihai Stetcu/Predrag Vuckovic/Alfredo Escobar/Gustavo Cherro/Red Bull Photofiles
These photos were snapped as Team Honda Europe’s five rider team put in a test session in the Tunisian desert in preparation for the 2011 Dakar. The Honda CRF 450 Dakar X has been modified with a carbon/Kevlar seat unit/subframe that contains the rear fuel tank, giving the bike 9.2 gallons of fuel storage; a large front fairing; larger front fender; stronger wheels; and a skid plate that contains a water reservoir. A larger alternator copes with the increased demand from xenon spot lamps and all the added instrumentation. Like all other teams, the Hondas have now been crated and shipped to Buenos Aires in preparation for the 14-day race’s start on January 1. :continue:
These photos and this video were taken as Marc Coma, Cyril Despres and Juan Pedrero put in a practice session on the KTM 450 Rally. The 2011 Dakar kicks off in Buenos Aires on 1 January, complete with an uncommonly diverse grid. Still, this €29,300 factory racer looks to be the bike to beat.
Photos: Edmunds J./KTM Images
Ignacio Chivers has a dream. He wants to become the first Spaniard to complete The Dakar rally on a two-stroke Spanish bike and he’s not going to let the lack of eligible contemporary Spanish production motorcycles stop him. Instead, he’s goign to ride a 1978 Bultaco Frontera 370 in the 14-stage, 3,100-mile race through the deserts of Argentina and Chile. :continue:
