The 48-hour marathon stage at Dakar 2024 started this Thursday, with a total of 12 riders having gone farther than the others: they reached rest point E and will spend the night at rest point F after covering 513km.
Those riders are the Monster Energy Honda men Adrien van Beveren, José Ignacio Cornejo, and Ricky Brabec; Red Bull KTM’s Kevin Benavides and Toby Price; Daniel Sanders (Red Bull GasGAS); Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna); Joan Barreda and Ross Branch from Hero MotoSports; António Maio (Drag’on Rally Team/Yamaha); Martin Michek (Orion Moto Racing Group/KTM); and Stevan Svitko (Slonaft Rally Team/KTM).
This group will have 113km to cover tomorrow, out of the total 626km of the special stage. It’s worth noting that there are a total of seven bivouacs set up along the route. After 4:00 PM (local time), all riders had to head immediately to the nearest designated zone, where they will spend the night with basic camping equipment, provisions, and virtually isolated from the rest of the world.
The latest information from the official Dakar website regarding provisional rankings was at kilometer 424. At that point, van Beveren was the fastest, with a 37-second lead over Brabec. The American was virtually leading the overall classification, overtaking Branch, who was over eight minutes behind the fastest rider.