Dakar Day 6 – Coma takes second stage win, Despres extends lead

Marc Coma bounced back from the tyre problems on day five to take a convincing victory on stage six to win by over 10 minutes.

The Spanish KTM rider excelled in the dusty conditions and demonstrated his superb navigational skills escalating himself up three places up to fourth in the overall standings.

Coma said: “At the 29KM point there was a check point, because of the dust everyone went right instead of left so I got a little bit lost.

“Apart from that I had a good rhythm and was able to pass a lot of other riders even in the dust which was dangerous. It’s good to win another stage and I’m happy.”

Second on the stage was rally leader Cyril Despres who finished just four seconds ahead of impressive Portuguese rider Helder Rodriguez onboard his Yamaha.

Despres now leads the 2010 Dakar in the overall standings by 42m 15s from Francisco Lopez onboard his factory Aprilia.

The days racing was marred by serious injury when Luca Manca fell from his 690KTM.

The Italian rider who gave Marc Coma his rear wheel yesterday crashed while attempting to push his way up the leader board.

Manca remains in a critical condition with a fractured skull and has been put in a medically induced Coma. He is now being treated in Santiago hospital where the next 24 hours will be critical.

Andrew Neri became the second British rider to retire from the gruelling event. The KTM rider joins Duncan Tweedy on the list of withdrawals leaving Craig Bounds in 63rd, Paul Carlyle 82nd, Irishman Phillip Noone 95th and Tamsin Jones 97th.

1 Cyril DESPRES   21:35:59     
2 Francisco LOPEZ   22:18:14    +  00:42:15.00
3 Helder RODRIGUES   22:20:04    +  00:44:05.00
4 MARC COMA   22:42:20    +  01:06:21.00
5 PAL ANDERS ULLEVALSETER   22:50:41    +  01:14:42.00
6 ALAIN DUCLOS   22:57:55    +  01:21:56.00
7 JONAH STREET   23:00:21    +  01:24:22.00
8 DAVID FRETIGNE   23:36:56    +  02:00:57.00
9 IVAN JAKES   23:43:38    +  02:07:39.00
10 OLIVIER PAIN   23:44:45    +  02:08:46.00
11 Juan PEDRERO GARCIA   23:44:57    +  02:08:58.00
12 THOMAS BERGLUND   23:45:55    +  02:09:56.00
13 Vadim PRITULYAK   23:48:14    +  02:12:15.00
14 Ceci PAOLO   23:51:16    +  02:15:17.00
15 Jakub PRZYGONSKI   24:02:52    +  02:26:53.00
16 RUBEN FARIA   24:37:22    +  03:01:23.00
17 JACEK CZACHOR   25:00:04    +  03:24:05.00
18 Felipe PROHENS   25:17:08    +  03:41:09.00
19 Stefan SVITKO   25:24:48    +  03:48:49.00
20 Frank VERHOESTRAETE   26:10:54    +  04:34:55.00
21 Pedro BIANCHI PRATA   26:17:57    +  04:41:58.00
22 Francisco ARREDONDO   26:47:04    +  05:11:05.00
23 Manuel JAMETT   27:03:32    +  05:27:33.00
24 Alessandro ZANOTTI   27:05:21    +  05:29:22.00
25 Rodolpho MATTHEIS   27:15:05    +  05:39:06.00
26 MIGUEL PUERTAS HERRERA   27:22:01    +  05:46:02.00
27 Dominique ROBIN   27:22:35    +  05:46:36.00
28 Jaime PROHENS   27:28:09    +  05:52:10.00
29 Franco Picco   27:33:25    +  05:57:26.00
30 Laurent LAZARD   27:36:08    +  06:00:09.00
31 Michael PISANO   27:39:50    +  06:03:51.00
32 DAVID PABISKA   27:40:05    +  06:04:06.00
33 Martin FREINADEMETZ   27:42:28    +  06:06:29.00
34 Hans-jos LIEFHEBBER   27:48:49    +  06:12:50.00
35 Krzysztof JARMUZ   27:50:51    +  06:14:52.00
36 Henk KNUIMAN   27:52:47    +  06:16:48.00
37 Rodolfo osvaldo BOLLERO   27:54:22    +  06:18:23.00
38 Gino BIANCHI   28:06:07    +  06:30:08.00
39 Pau SOLER   28:26:01    +  06:50:02.00
40 ANNIE SEEL   28:33:58    +  06:57:59.00
41 David BARROT   28:37:39    +  07:01:40.00
42 Etienne LORMAND   28:40:51    +  07:04:52.00
43 Rob POLLARD   28:48:06    +  07:12:07.00
44 CARLOS AMBROSIO   29:02:38    +  07:26:39.00
45 Gerrit jan gerben VRUGGINK   29:27:16    +  07:51:17.00
46 MAREK DABROWSKI   29:29:36    +  07:53:37.00
47 Richard DE GROOT   29:33:50    +  07:57:51.00
48 Rodriguez CLAUDIO   29:44:48    +  08:08:49.00
49 Ludovic BOINNARD   29:47:11    +  08:11:12.00
50 Marcel SNIJDERS   29:54:17    +  08:18:18.00
51 DUSAN RANDYSEK   30:00:32    +  08:24:33.00
52 Octavio VALLE   30:16:00    +  08:40:01.00
53 Roman KREJCI   30:54:44    +  09:18:45.00
54 Philippe PEILLON   31:02:21    +  09:26:22.00
55 Mirjam POL   31:03:05    +  09:27:06.00
56 Pablo BUSIN   31:37:28    +  10:01:29.00
57 Kemal Merkit   31:47:01    +  10:11:02.00
58 CHRISTOPHE BARRIERE VARJU   31:48:57    +  10:12:58.00
59 Pedro Manuel PENATE MUNOZ   32:15:52    +  10:39:53.00
60 Julio Federico QUIROGA   32:19:44    +  10:43:45.00
61 Gilles GELEBART   32:25:01    +  10:49:02.00
62 Jean-Christophe MENARD   33:47:56    +  12:11:57.00
63 Craig BOUNDS   33:58:13    +  12:22:14.00
64 CLAUDIO PEDERZOLI   34:09:04    +  12:33:05.00
65 Patrick TRAHAN   34:19:16    +  12:43:17.00
66 Serge GELEBART   34:22:30    +  12:46:31.00
67 PATRICE CARILLON   34:27:11    +  12:51:12.00
68 Gabor SAGHMEISTER   34:58:34    +  13:22:35.00
69 Jairo SEGARRA ALMAGRO   35:23:21    +  13:47:22.00
70 Silvia GIANNETTI   35:40:08    +  14:04:09.00
71 FABRIZIO MUGNAIOLI   35:40:44    +  14:04:45.00
72 Jan VESELY   35:46:52    +  14:10:53.00
73 ERIC PALANTE   36:01:09    +  14:25:10.00
74 JEAN CLAUDE MAZET   36:23:33    +  14:47:34.00
75 Serge PRISER   36:55:48    +  15:19:49.00
76 Frans VERHOEVEN   37:00:03    +  15:24:04.00
77 Gilles PLANSON   37:59:55    +  16:23:56.00
78 Philippe CAVELIUS   38:08:49    +  16:32:50.00
79 Federico eduardo COLA   38:34:10    +  16:58:11.00
80 YANNICK GUYOMARC’H   38:35:30    +  16:59:31.00
81 JOEL MORO   39:20:42    +  17:44:43.00
82 Paul CARLYLE   40:26:58    +  18:50:59.00
83 Vicente DE BENEDICTIS NETO   40:56:23    +  19:20:24.00
84 Eduardo ALAN   41:31:16    +  19:55:17.00
85 Gabriel Juan BOTTAZZINI   41:54:49    +  20:18:50.00
86 JOSE GUTIERREZ   41:54:55    +  20:18:56.00
87 Guanghui WEI   42:58:50    +  21:22:51.00
88 Aloys RESSING   43:43:26    +  22:07:27.00
89 Wenmin SU   44:47:51    +  23:11:52.00
90 MANUEL GARCIA VITORIA   44:53:03    +  23:17:04.00
91 Julian VILLARRUBIA GARCIA   44:56:57    +  23:20:58.00
92 Sergio gabriel PASCUAL   45:54:14    +  24:18:15.00
93 Martin AMENGUAL   46:41:58    +  25:05:59.00
94 Tonny KRABBENBORG   48:26:35    +  26:50:36.00
95 Philip NOONE   48:41:40    +  27:05:41.00
96 ALAIN DELAUNAY   48:48:48    +  27:12:49.00
97 Tamsin JONES   52:57:49    +  31:21:50.00
98 Christina MEIER   58:50:27    +  37:14:28.00
99 Christian CALIFANO   67:48:53    +  46:12:54.00