Kevin Benavides finished in ninth place in the prologue of the 2024 Dakar. The winner of last year’s edition, competing again for Red Bull KTM, returned after an injury to his shin and on this opening day finished 56 seconds behind the fastest rider – Tosha Schareina (Monster Energy Honda).
The Argentine is happy with his performance and return to action, as he stated to the Dakar website: ‘It was a nice prologue, I think. It was short, but with a lot of navigation. Also the track was sandy and I started behind, so it was very broken – I was moving a lot on the bike. So I tried to be really focused; it has been a lot of time without racing for me, it was nice to come back. I just tried to have a good pace, be focused on the navigation, and then I think I did a good work. So I’m happy for this prologue. Then we will see what happens, but this is just the warm-up for the race’.
Asked about his physical condition, Benavides replied: ‘Physically it was OK. There were a lot of turns to the left, so those turns for me are a little bit more difficult because of my foot. Anyway, it was good’.
