Day of contrasts for Spanish hopes in the Dakar, and it is still too early for it. On motorcycles, the one who came to star in the great heroic story of the Spanish representation in this edition, Tosha Schareina, confirmed firsthand that the raid is what decides who wins, who finishes and who has to wait another year to see if is worthy of continuing or not.
What could be one of the great hopes of Spanish motorcycling in this Dakar said goodbye to the first changes. Halfway through the day's special, and trying to avoid another driver, Tosha Schareina, who had won the prologue, crashed with such bad luck for him that he had to retire with a broken wrist. He was evacuated by helicopter, and although in pain (more mentally than physically), he was forced to become one of the dropouts of the day.
The Valencian left Honda without one of its main candidates, since bad luck fell upon him in one of the years in which he had the most hopes. After his debut in 2021, missing the 2022 event due to the last minute crash of the project and a 2023 in which he ran injured, he has not made it past stage 1. «I must have hit something with the rear wheel when I was overtaking Toby Price. He wasn't rolling fast, it wasn't a bad fall, but I broke my wrist,” he explained upon his arrival at the bivouac. He will now have to recover well to face the season, with the Dakar 2025 in mind.
The victory on two wheels went to Botswana's Ross Branch, who has his first victory this year. The one from Hero was one of those who stopped to help Schareina, so, despite initially entering the finish line 16:10 behind the provisional winner, Ricky Brabec (Honda), the organization gave him 25 minutes back and proclaimed him the winner of the day, with the young Mason Klein third of the day and, being stage 1, of the general motorcycle classification. The best Spaniard of the day was Lorenzo Santolino, seventh, who with the Sherco demonstrated that his greatest virtue is his calmness and that he knows where and how he should attack. Given the complicated nature of the day (Schareina was just one of several abandonments in this stage 1) and what is expected to be a very tough first week, the man from Salamanca knows that in these early stages he has much more to lose than to gain. Joan Barreda has shown himself along this same line, who already had a scare in the form of a fall in the prologue. 'Bang-bang' marked the 13th time of the day.
El Matador pushes from the start
There are two weeks left until the Dakar ends, but the positions and strategies are not unknown in the cars. In a day won by the surprising Guillaume De Mevius, recently arrived from the T3 light prototypes, with the Toyota Hilux, the second classified of the day and who will leave this Sunday with second place overall was Carlos Sainz. The man from Madrid, after a small setback in the prologue that caused him to fall more than he would have anticipated, pushed from the first kilometers to show that he is willing to give Audi the farewell it deserves from the toughest raid in the world.
On the stones and hard volcanic lands from Al-Ula, in an unprecedented stage for everyone, Sainz gritted his teeth to try to keep the brave Belgian from escaping him, especially in the last kilometers where the debutant pulled out his claws to win his first stage dakariana in the highest category. De Meuvis reached kilometer 318 with only a minute and a half left, and instead of settling and trying to think that there was still a lot of rally ahead, he pushed even harder. Sainz, aware of this, did decide not to risk it and let his rival of the day be the one to kiss the ephemeral glory, but glory after all, of the partial victory. El Matador did not have a calm day, far from it, with three punctures and holding his breath, since he reached the finish line without a spare.
The one who didn't have his day either, and unlike Sainz couldn't fix it, was the big favorite. Nasser Al-Attiyah entered Al Henakiyah almost 25 minutes behind in an improvable 22nd position for the day. The Qatari, who is looking for his third Touareg trophy, admitted that he did not have his day, since he (finally) had some problems. «We had two punctures in the first fifty kilometers, so we couldn't attack any further and we limited ourselves to reaching the finish line. But I'm happy because it was very difficult and we had to take it very easy in the last 150 kilometers,” he noted. He was not the only one, since Stéphane 'Monsieur Dakar' Peterhansel also dropped out for more than half an hour, just behind the Spanish Laia Sanz with Astara.
The design of this initial week of the Dakar wants to be absolute screening. In fact, after the 414 kilometers of special (which for the cars started an hour late because the Frenchman Lionel Baud ran over a spectator) on this Three Kings Saturday, on the first Sunday of 2024 they will have to do another 463 timed tests, with a start in dunes that will become harder terrain as they approach Al-Duwadimi. It will be an opportunity for the fastest, who will have to manage well if they do not want to pack their bags soon.
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