In the tenth stage, Ross Branch once again moved further away from the dream of winning Dakar 2024. With the seventh time, he finishes this Wednesday in second place overall, but now at a distant 10m54s behind the leader Ricky Brabec (Monster Energy Honda) with only two days left.
The Hero MotoSports rider highlighted that he gave his best and enjoyed the stage but did not fail to make some mistakes: ‘I was going for it. I gave my everything. I made a couple of stupid, little mistakes, we lost a bit of time, but we had a good day. It was fun. I enjoyed it. Riding with Toby [Price] and Quinty [Pablo Quintanilla] was fun. I look up to the guys and I really respect them, so riding with them and having a bit of fun is what it’s about. I enjoyed it’.
Branch then acknowledged Brabec’s good form and that it will be challenging to beat the opponent: ‘Ricky’s stepped up the level and he’s doing well and it’s gonna be hard to catch him, but we’ve still got one more long day and we’ll see how it goes’.
After that, the Botswana rider emphasized that he won’t give up: ‘You never stop believing. The finish is only when the chequered flag finishes at the end of the race. So we’ll keep on fighting right till the end and who knows, maybe we’ll get lucky. We’ll just see’.
Finally, Branch recalled that anything can happen until the end: ‘This is racing, anything can happen in 100 metres, so I’ll just give it my best shot and see what happens’.