Joan Barreda wanted a stage win on the road to Cachi to put several days of bad luck behind him and on Wednesday, the Spaniard got his way in a special in which he was head and shoulders above a nonetheless impressive Marc Coma. Buenos Aires looms on the horizon.

Team HRC’s Barreda, frustrated by a streak of bad luck which sounded the death knell for his overall ambitions in stage eight, was determined to grab as many stage wins as possible to finish the Dakar in style.

The Spaniard, possibly the most talented rider in the field, claimed his third win since the start in Buenos Aires after setting an infernal pace throughout the entire special and finishing 1m39s ahead of Marc Coma in Cachi.

Coma himself was the other big winner of today’s stage, as he increased the gap separating him from his closest rivals. Paulo Gonçalves had to settle for fifth, conceding an extra two minutes to his KTM foe.

Eighth-placed Pablo Quintanilla lost even more ground and now holds a wafer-thin margin over the solid Toby Price, fourth today at 2m14s. Ruben Faria also had a good day on the saddle, clocking the third fastest time, just like sixth-placed Štefan Svitko.

Details on Llewellyn Sullivan-Pavey and Simon Pavey’s progress at this stage are yet to surface. Stay tuned for updates when we have them.

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