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 | SA-Dakar Rally: Miki Biasion takes care of the victory for the Team De Rooy.
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After some repairs and comprehensive checks on the trucks, the Dutch Team "De Rooy Petronas" was ready to start with 5 well prepared Iveco trucks with the 3rd stage from San Rafael to San Juan. It was certainly "not a boring day" for Miki Biasion. We already knew he was an excellent rider, but tuesday it was confirmed again of what he is capable and he took the baton over from team member Gerard de Rooy.
The differences during the special were small. At WP1 there were almost no changes compared to the start order. Gerard de Rooy came through first, followed by Kamaz rider Karginov who was 7 seconds behind. Third was Hans Stacey at 9 seconds and Miki, who was at that moment still 21 seconds behind.
From WP2 onwards, the die was cast. Gerard de Rooy was not riding in the top-5 anymore and had some technical setback. "The cooling-water tube was leaking", says De Rooy. "That was only one thing, but repairing and refilling the cooling-water is another thing when you just went through a riverbed and the underside of the truck is fully wet. Try to find the leak! We lost 5 to 6 minutes at the minimum."
Miki Biasion took over the lead from WP2 onwards and clocks at 01:39:44 hours. Hans was still doing well en is 1:30 minute behind at WP2. The team members Jo Adua and Pep Vila came through respectively 10th at 6:31 minutes and 15th at 11:27 minutes making them a very strong assistance team.
WP3 is 35 kilometres from WP2 and shows an equal picture of the competition so we look forward to the finish. At the finishing line it turned out that the Iveco Trakker EVO II from Miki Biasion was too strong for the competitors and he clocks a time of 02:50:53 hours.
The Kamaz-Astana rider Ardavichus from Kazakstan finished 2nd, 1.09 minute behind Miki and takes the lead in the general rankings. Third in today’s stage is the Russian Karginov, followed by Loprais with his Tatra.
They are followed by the Team de Rooy, they take the 6th, 7th and 8th place with respectively Hans at 4:37 minutes, Jo Adua - the fast assistance - at 8:03 minutes and Gerard at 8:57 mins. Pep Vila also performed great and took a 14th place, 20:49 mins behind the leader.
The Kamaz rider, Ardavichus takes the lead in the General Rankings, followed by Gerard de Rooy, being 28 seconds behind. Miki Biasion takes the 3rd place at 1.51 minute and Hans Stacey became 4th at 1:57 minute. Everything is still possible and the Team is doing a good job.
2012/01/04 | 17:15 CET | ARTICLE: MR/HS/DE ROOY
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