Dakar kicks off

KTM dominated the first day of the Dakar, with Cyril Despres winning the opening stage and fellow KTM riders Ruben Faria and Marc Coma taking second and third.

As usual the first stage of the mammoth rally was a short ‘special’ stage with two long liaisons, or non times sections, before and after.

The special stage is more like a short enduro and Despres only took just over 50 minutes to complete the course in the winning time, despite starting last as the 2005 winner.

Round the world rider Charley Boorman finished the day in 181st in his first attempt at the Dakar with his BMW team-mates Matt Hall and Simon Pavey finishing slightly behind in 185th and 186th.

“I couldn’t believe how nervous I was at the start but as soon as I got off the line the nerves were replaced by pure excitement” said Boorman. “After blowing the cobwebs away on day one I just can’t wait to get my teeth in to the rally tomorrow.”

Top 20 standings after day 1:

1. Despres (Gauloises KTM) 58:10 min

2. Faria (KTM) 58:14 min + 00:04

3. Coma (Repsol KTM) 58:17 min + 00:07

4. Rodrigues (YAMAHA) 59:00 min + 00:50

5. Esteve Pujol (Gauloises KTM) 59:10 min + 01:00

6. Fretigne (YAMAHA) 59:15 min + 01:05

7. Casteu (Gauloises KTM) 59:36 min + 01:26

8. Pellicer (KTM) 59:54 min + 01:44

9. Caldecott (Repsol KTM) 01:00:35 h + 02:25

10. Goncalves (HONDA) 01:00:45 h + 02:34

11. Rivera (KTM) 01:00:47 h + 02:36

12. Duclos (KTM) 01:01:01 h + 02:51

13. Street (KTM) 01:01:15 h + 03:05

14. De Gavardo (Repsol KTM) 01:01:18 h + 03:08

15. Agra Carrera (YAMAHA) 01:01:45 h + 03:34

16. Verhoefen (YAMAHA) 01:02:11 h + 04:01

17. Farres Guell (YAMAHA) 01:02:16 h + 04:06

18. Van Drunen (YAMAHA) 01:02:16 h + 04:06

19. Toral Garcia (KTM) 01:02:31 h + 04:20

20. Viladoms (KTM) 01:02:50 h + 04:40