Luciano Benavides didn’t have luck on his side during the fifth stage of the Dakar. Despite only having 118km timed, the Husqvarna rider lost the chance to compete for a top-five result due to a technical issue that forced him to slow down in the final kilometers.
The Argentinean only managed the ninth fastest time, placing him 11th in the overall standings, 45 minutes and 36 seconds behind the new leader, Ross Branch (Hero MotoSports). As a result, his chances of winning are now less likely.
In a press release, Benavides acknowledged it was a challenging stage: ‘It wasn’t a great day for me. I felt good in the dunes as that is the sort of terrain that I like, I was pushing hard and was in second or third place for a while. Unfortunately, I then had some technical issues in the last 5km of the special, so I lost some time there. I managed to get to the end but overall it hasn’t been an ideal day’.
