The Dakar Rally 2017 has reached Bolivia and the harsh weather conditions ensured that Stage 5 was far too dangerous for participants. With the rally cut short in Stage 5, the Indian teams - Hero MotoSports and Sherco TVS managed to bring stark improvements in their respective standings with TVS' Joan Pedrero taking the lead.
Stage 5 of world's most grueling race had to be cut short, after heavy rains washed out parts of the track in the latter half of the 447-km special stage between Tupiza and Oruro. This forced organisers to cancel the remaining half at the 292 km mark.
Stage 5 saw riders make remarkable recovery in standings
After a difficult two stages, it was a day of redemption for Sherco TVS riders as Joan Pedrero finished the special stage in 2 hours 31 minutes and 31 seconds, securing 4th place. The Spanish rider finished 63rd yesterday and moved up by a massive number. His overall general classification stands at 25th place. His teammate Adrien Metge too made remarkable progress finishing the special stage at 21st place in 2 hours 55 minutes and 35 seconds. His overall general classification stands at 46th place.
Meanwhile, Hero MotoSports too managed to beat frigid temperatures, pouring rain, hail storm and tricky track conditions to further improve their standings in the overall general classification, while several top riders got a heavy penalty. Hero's lead rider Joaquim Rodrigues has shown exception skill over the past days and continued to do so in Stage 5 as well. The rider started this stage at 17th place after his rankings further improved overnight on account of a time refund of 27 minutes. The refund was done since he stopped on two separate occasions in Stage 4 to call in the medical helicopter to evacuate two crashed riders.
Joaquim Rodrigues received a time refund for helping two crashed riders on Day 4
Stage 5 saw Rodrigues improve his momentum and complete the day in 2 hours 48 minutes and 36 seconds. This put him in 11th place in the day's classification, while his overall provisional general classification stands at 11th, an improvement by one place.
CS Santosh, who made substantial gains in the fourth stage, continued to build on the same. In his third Dakar outing, the Indian rider finished the special stage in 3 hours 42 minutes and 37 seconds that pushed him up to 60th place in the day's standings and placed him 70th in the overall provisional general standings.
CS Santosh is going strong building steady pace
"The first part was really slick because of all the rain on the track. Apart from that, it was really cold. There was a section that involved some tricky navigation, but I managed to find the waypoint. Then on the main piste in the latter part, there were some navigational challenges, but I managed to get in the right direction to collect a really tricky waypoint. But the biggest challenge today was the cold and the length of the day," said Santosh after arriving at a rain-drenched bivouac.
While Stage 5 was a day of redemption for teams, Stage 6 has been called off completely between Oruro and La Paz due to the extreme climatic conditions. The sixth stage of the 2017 Dakar was to take participants from Oruro to La Paz, before a day's break. However, the 786 km run to La Paz with a special stage extending to 527 km, seems impossible and clearly dangerous due to the harsh weather conditions. Stage 6 was also the longest timed section in this edition of the Dakar.
