Summarize

Dakar’s first official Bike stage delivered an epic day of racing around Bisha, Saudi Arabia on Saturday. Australian Daniel Sanders’ Red Bull KTM held Californian 2024 winner Ricky Brabec’s Honda, Botswana World Champion Ross Branch on his Hero Moto, and Spaniard Tosha Schareina’s Honda off for a memorable victory following a hard fought stage between the four.

South African riders, 2024 World Rally 2 Champion, Bradley Cox was 11th on BAS World KTM after he and Rally 2 teammate Michael Docherty raced on the fringes of the top ten for most of the morning. Docherty lost time at mid distance, fell back and then recovered to a provisional 32nd. Compatriot Aaron Mare also lost time early on, en route to 53rd on his Husqvarna. Rally 2 men Dwain Barnard and Willem Avenant were running around 70th and 110th at the time of writing.

Friday’s 413 kilometre first full stage set off on sand tracks before switching between that and dirt and gravel tracks in a loop around Bisha described as a mosaic of terrains ready to test even the most experienced navigators to the very limit. To that end, Dakar’s bonus time system helps mitigate the disadvantage of opening the road to any riders within 15 seconds of the leading group, by adding a 1 second per kilometre, and up to 5 minutes 35 seconds on today’s stage.

There was early drama when Ross Branch’s Hero Moto teammate Sebastian Bühler fell and hurt his shoulder to exit the race, and 2024 Rally 2 winner Harinth Noah’s Sherco also retired. Honda rider Skyler Howes has stopped to assist Bühler. Howes’ time lost was deducted at the end of the day. Up front meanwhile, a tremendous battle played out with Ricky Brabec initially ahead, before Ross Branch took over and then Daniel Sanders went ahead. Less than a minute separated those three and Tosha Schareina.

Sanders led Schareina, Brabec and Branch at mid distance, before Brabec moved past Schareina later in the morning, but the Spaniard was soon back ahead and chasing the KTM up front hard. Schareina however slipped to fourth behind Brabec and Branch through the final sector. Behind them, KTM rider Luciano Benavides held Honda trio Pablo Quintanilla, Howes and Adrien van Beveren. Chilean José Ignacio Cornejo’s Hero and Czech Martin Michek on a KTM closed the top ten, while Tobias Ebster edged Edgar Canet for the Rally 2 win.

Sunday sees the first half of Dakar’s thousand-kilometre 2-day 48H Chrono stage. While the day starts as usual, competitors must report to the closest of six overnight rest areas where they will camp under the stars, before setting off to finish the balance of stage 2 on Monday. No outside assistance is allowed, leaving crews to rely on one another to do any repairs. The Chrono stage will also see the bikes racing a different route to the cars.