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 | SA-Dakar: French Motobiker David Casteu - "This was riding like at home".
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The second stage of the Dakar was 100% brand new. From Cordoba, the race headed north to San Miguel de Tucuman, within a landscape that reminded David of the Tanneron. Bikes and cars were again separate during part of the stage. Riders enjoyed the stage 100%, over an old road, with more than 39 degrees Celsius.
After a road connection of about 140 km, the 300 km timed section allowed David to reach the 3rd place, 3:46 from stage winner Cyril Despres, and take the 6th position overall, 10:01 from the leader.
"It was a special stage with lots of steering, 300 km of roads like in my region, in the Tanneron. Big roads with blind turns, you needed to be more than concentrated. It was a beautiful stage, the bike worked great and I had fun riding. We did some suspension adjustments yesterday."
The Sherco 450 was fantastic and David presented it to the cameras of France Television in the live section from the bivouac hosted by journalist Gérard Holtz and ski champion Luc Alphand. Spectators in France were able to see some skidding of our #5 and his Sherco during the stage.
"Today there was less people on the roads, so I was able to attack. I took back positions in the dust of Rodrigues, Viladoms and Verhoeven, and I was able to overtake them, but it wasn´t easy."
Even if he climbed to the 6th position overall, David doesn´t want to focus on it: "The Dakar is still long. I don´t get anxious, I started clean. I just did a little mistake in a turn, but in general, it was o.k. At a moment, I was riding at 163 km/h; pour a 450 cc is not so bad! Now I will pay attention to the mechanics."
2011/01/03 | 22:56 CET | ARTICLE: MR/SY/URTUBIA
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