Dakar Rally 2022 participants took a day off before starting week two of the rally, which seems to be serving most riders well in their quests for position.
Honda’s big year
Honda factory rider Kevin Benavides won the rally this year, with teammate Ricky Brabec in second. Almost as importantly, a couple of other Honda riders were in the hunt until the final stages. It’s a big change from the rally’s South American days, when riders like Paulo Goncalves and Joan Barreda would put in solid riding but were let down by their machinery. This year, Honda had no embarrassing bike problems. The combination of new team management and careful mechanical updates is working out very nicely.
And now, the word on the street is that Honda’s looking to cut its team budget. Barreda is supposedly considering retirement after a head injury, so Honda might save some money by not replacing him, or replacing him with a new rider on a smaller contract. Whatever happens, hopefully the Honda team can stay competitive. The team has been a major disruptor in the past few years, even if its results were uneven until 2020. Honda gave both up-and-coming and
Stage 7 of the 2021 Dakar Rally is also the first half of the marathon stage and saw Hero's Joaquim Rodrigues finish in 9th place, while Sebastian Buhler remains steady at 21st. Harith Noah progressed to 25th at the end of the day. The marathon stage sees rider get no assistance from their crews overnight.
Dakar Rally 2021: Hero Riders Keep It Steady; Harith Noah Improves Form & Ashish Raorane Suffers A Crash In Stage 3
Dakar Rally 2021: Hero Riders Keep It Steady; Harith Noah Improves Form & Ashish Raorane Suffers A Crash In Stage 3
Hero riders Joaquim Rodrigues, Sebastian Buhler, and CS Santosh held the fort with a steady pace through the sandy plateau, dunes, and the rocky sections in Stage 3, while privateers Harith Noah and Ashish Raorane moved up despite minor hiccups.
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India s CS Santosh is placed 34th in the overall standings in Dakar 2021 at the end of Stage 3
Highlights
Harith Noah completed Stage 3, improving his form over the 2020 season