Dakar, Van Beveren the best on day one of the 48h mega stage

Here comes the main new feature of the 2024 Dakar, a 48-hour stage that will see the riders alone in the desert with just seven temporary bivouac points at which to spend the night, though without support.

Alone in the desert

The 48-hour Dakar stage is the main new feature of this year’s edition, with stage 6 split over two days, namely Thursday 11 and Friday 12 January. Riders set off from the Shubaytah bivouac today as they tackle the 626km special stage comprised solely of dunes in the Empty Quarter, the world’s sandiest desert. There are seven makeshift bivouacs in the desert where riders can rest up in a tent, with no mattresses and only military rations for dinner and breakfast. To prevent riders from remaining in the desert in the dark, there are set times by which they must leave the bivouacs. The desert camps have no showers or services and, crucially, no internet connection, which means that riders cannot communicate with their teams or see the standings.

Van Beveren leads at Bivouac F

When the stage was initially presented, various riders and staff members questioned whether the top riders might be able to finish the 48-hour stage in just one day – and now we know that the answer is no. That said, the best did complete almost four fifths of the race distance today, reaching Bivouac F in about six and a half hours. The fastest right now is Adrien Van Beveren, the factory Monster Energy Honda rider reaching the sixth of seven bivouacs in 6:30’39”, a minute and a half ahead of team-mate Ricky Brabec. Third place for Toby Price with the first of the factory KTMs, currently 1’49” slower than the French Honda rider. Daniel Sanders lies fourth with the GasGas, 3’32” back, followed by Rally Raid world champion Luciano Benavides in fifth (6’07”). Demonstrating just how challenging it is to navigate the dunes in the world’s vastest desert, all these riders started between ninth and sixteenth position this morning and were therefore able to make use of the lines already traced by the riders ahead. Joan Barreda started first to finish half an hour off the pace (which would have been almost 40 minutes without the bonus for having opened the stage), while José Ignacio Cornejo Florimo, who was leading overall after yesterday’s stage, lost 15’ and therefore hands the virtual lead to Ricky Brabec.