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 | Pharaons Rally: Coma wins stage 2, Francisco Lopez still overall leader.
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A thought second stage for Pharaons Rally 2010. 366 km have taken the rally caravan from El Rammak to the bivouac of Bir Karawein, in a day where the heat was the main character.
Chaleco Lopez started first tuesday morning and it was first joined by Rodrigues, then Coma and Przygonski. The four riders had rolled together until the refueling, then Coma was detached from the group and only López succeeded to keep close to him. This was another demonstration of the power of the Aprilia Tuareg 4.5 that performs well in a fast race and competes with the most powerful bike, Marc Coma´s 690 cc KTM.
"It was a hard stage. Lots of jumps, off track, and fast portions" said Chaleco. "I opened the road up to km 130 and then Marc (Coma) overtook me and we rode together with Helder (Rodrigues) and Jakub (Przygonski). The bike works really well, and to have been able to reach the KTM 690cc is a great thing."
"It was fast, lots of bumps, stony and jumps too" Przygonski added. "It was a physical stage. As it was dusty, it was hard to overtake other riders. At km 102 my road book broke down so I stopped to repair it and lost about 30 seconds."
After today´s result, 8:45 from Marc Coma, Chaleco keeps leading the overall classification, increasing the gap over Helder Rodrigues who is second, 6:48 behind. Third overall is Marc Coma 7:42 from the Chilean. "There was sand, stones, a bit of everything. It was a beautiful stage. I attacked from the beginning. The stage was not easy. Tomorrow I must open the road and - that is not advantageous" said Coma.
It was a great stage for Alex Zanotti, 6th of today and 5th overall. San Marino´s rider has ridden carefully due to the dust on the stage and preferred to avoid unnecessary risks.
Matteo Graziani keeps adapting himself to the Tuareg 4.5 and takes the 10th place and the same one overall. The day was not bright for Gerard Farres. The Spanish rides a "lab" bike and today he faced problems with the condenser that made him took the fixed penalty.
Tomorrow, for the third stage, competitors will be measured in two specials sections between Bir Karawein and Abu Mingar. The Catalonian will open the track while Chaleco will start in the 4th position: an optimal place to control the situation.
2010/10/05 | 21:43 CET | EDITOR: MR/HS/BAUER
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