Stage 1 - Saturday 6 January 2007 - Lisboa to Portimão
Connection 115 km - Special 117 km - Connection 232 km
Total 464 km
The film of the stage
A Portuguese double whammy
The Portuguese pulled out all the stops to welcome the three-day
scrutineering of competitors for the 29th edition of the Dakar in Lisbon.
They were even more convincing when it came down to the nitty-gritty of the
rally. Ruben Faria on his bike and Carlos Sousa in his car were the year's
first winners, over an already very sandy route on which the main favourites
for the race remained muted. Alphand, slowed down by a puncture, will start
the second stage eleven minutes behind Portugal's finest. In the trucks,
Gerard De Rooy was the quickest on the Dutch vehicles' return to the rally.
Ruben Faria surprised everyone last year when he triumphed on the tracks of
the Algarve, where the second special stage took place. The only thing that
equals the determination of the leading rider of the Portuguese clan is his
efficiency on his country's tracks. On his first participation in 2006, the
endurance champion finished 35th in Dakar. His return to the rally which
gave him his hour of glory was spelled out in grand style. His approach of
all-out attack worked like in 2006. After having overtaken almost 80 riders,
Faria recorded a time out of reach of the leading riders, who by and large
had decided to play it safe on this technical course full of pitfalls. Only
his countryman Helder Rodrigues, who had already made a name for himself in
the Portuguese stages last year, driven on by the same opportunity, got
anywhere near to him, namely 16 seconds.
Thrilled by their stay in Portugal, the race favourites mainly saw this
first special stage as a warm-up. Even though he had not intended to go hell
for leather, preferring prudence to a show-time approach, Cyril Despres also
had to slow the tempo due to technical constraints. The terrain was in such
a state of degradation after the mass of previous competitors had made the
sand even looser, that this caused problems with the fuel consumption of his
KTM. Wary of running out of petrol, the KTM Gauloises leader decided to err
on the side of caution. As far as Marc Coma was concerned, he also decided
to go gently with the throttle, to avoid the stress of having to overtake
often.
In the car category, Carlos Sousa was not able to bring joy to his home
crowd last year on the Algarve's tracks, finishing second in the first
Portuguese stage. In 2007, behind the wheel of his new Volkswagen and on a
much sandier course, the Portuguese driver made everyone happy this time by
recording his first success since 2001. The local star took all the risks to
pick up his 5th victory on the Dakar, really making the most of a longer and
very technical route, leaving his closest rival, Giniel de Villiers, more
than 2'30 behind.
The South African, probably less motivated than Sousa who was in front of
his home crowd, finished first of the official Volkswagens. In a first round
of cat and mouse with rival Mitsubishi, the four cars of the German team
snaffled the places between 2nd and 5th. Head and shoulders above the rest
during last year's special Portuguese stages, Carlos Sainz had to be happy
with third place. The much-awaited racing reunion between the two former WRC
rivals, Sainz and Ari Vatanen, respectively 3rd and 4th, did not disappoint,
both of them finishing within the same second! Lastly, American Marc Miller
rounded off the four in a row for VW.
As regards relative disappointments or the rally's first mechanical
incidents, title-holder Luc Alphand lost 10 precious minutes due to a
puncture after race kilometre 45. On such a short special stage, this type
of problem can quickly become very costly. The newcomer to the BMW X-Raid
team Jutta Kleinschmidt, had plenty more worries with her electrical
problems. The German's progress was halted for a long while, in spite of the
chivalrous assistance she received from team-mate Guerlain Chicherit, who
nonetheless grabbed 6th place. In the end, Kleinschmidt lost more than 27
minutes on the day's leader.
In the truck race, the De Rooy family, who made their return to the Dakar
after a year away due to the non-compliance of their trucks in 2006, will
promise a much harder race for the Kamaz team. Five-times winner Vladimir
Chagin, who was also beaten by his runner-up in 2006 Hans Stacey, is already
5'31 behind young Gerard, heir to the De Rooy dynasty.
-credit: dakar.com
