Stage 11 of the Dakar 2024, Al-'Ula in Yanbu, with 420 km of special test – against the 480 originally planned – confirmed the success of the American Ricky Brabec, on Honda, in motorcycles. Barring sensational twists in tomorrow's final catwalk, the 32-year-old Californian has certified his second career success in the most famous rally-raid in the world after the one achieved in 2020.
Today Brabec had to resist the direct attack of his great rival in this Dakar, the Botswana centaur Ross Branch, riding the Hero. Branch – who yesterday had lost 10 minutes behind the race leader – today tried to push as hard as he could to reverse the situation, leading all the intermediate stages and managing to build a margin over Brabec at the 292 km checkpoint.
At the final finish line, however, winning the Stage wasn't enough. In fact, Brabec recovered, limiting his gap at the finish line to just 32 seconds. The American will therefore begin tomorrow's final stage with a reassuring cushion of 10'22”. Third in today's stage and also in the general classification is the Frenchman Adrien van Beveren, also on Honda. At the start this morning his gap to second place Branch was less than a minute.
Today, however, van Beveren gained 3'17” from the winner of the stage, which makes him slip in the overall ranking to +14'31” from Brabec and +4'09” from Branch. For him, however, if he manages to regularly reach the finish line tomorrow, this 2024 podium will be his first ever podium at the Dakar after the fourth places obtained in 2017 and 2022 with Yamaha.
Dakar 2024, Motorcycle ranking – Stage 11 (Top-10)
| POS | PILOT | MOTORCYCLE | TIME / GAP |
| 1 | Ross Branch | Hero | 4:51.57 |
| 2 | Ricky Brabec | Honda | +0.32 |
| 3 | Adrien van Beveren | Honda | +3.17 |
| 4 | Luciano Benavides | Husqvarna | +4.38 |
| 5 | Toby Price | KTM | +6.31 |
| 6 | Bradley Cox | KTM | +8.05 |
| 7 | Kevin Benavides | KTM | +9.08 |
| 8 | Daniel Sanders | GasGas | +12.23 |
| 9 | Martin Michek | KTM | +14.27 |
| 10 | Stefan Svitko | KTM | +15.47 |
Dakar 2024, General motorcycle ranking after stage 11 (Top-10)
| POS | PILOT | MOTORCYCLE | TIME / GAP |
| 1 | Ricky Brabec | Honda | 49:37.57 |
| 2 | Ross Branch | Hero | +10.22 |
| 3 | Adrien van Beveren | Honda | +14.31 |
| 4 | José Cornejo Florimo | Honda | +38.44 |
| 5 | Kevin Benavides | KTM | +41.19 |
| 6 | Toby Price | KTM | +47.59 |
| 7 | Luciano Benavides | Husqvarna | +55.48 |
| 8 | Daniel Sanders | GasGas | +1:12.25 |
| 9 | Stefan Svitko | KTM | +1:54.18 |
| 10 | Martin Michek | KTM | +2:43.40 |
#Dakar #Moto #Stage #Branch #victory #Brabec #remains #ahead #FormulaPassion.it
