 
Desafío Ruta 40 2016
2016 season Stage 1
Team HRC on full force in the Ruta 40 first stage
Podium lockout for Joan Barreda, Paulo Gonçalves and Kevin Benavides,
who weathered a tough day of navigation and cold weather in the Desafío
Ruta 40 opening stage.
The canvas of the first stage of the Desafío Ruta 40 has been tinged
with Team HRC colours. Honda CRF450 RALLYs occupied no less than the first
six final positions, with a notable victory for Joan Barreda, laying down
the gauntlet on day one.
There was no shortage of tricky navigation to deal with in the first and
cold stage which started out in the Nihuil dunes and the salt flats of the
Mendoza province. Next came a section of fast track with wild animals
causing some of the riders a scare or two. Barreda, for example, was unable
to avoid a collision with one, although he made it safely through the
ordeal, before going on to take the stage victory.
Finishing behind Barreda was Team HRC colleague Paulo Gonçalves –
winner of the 2015 Ruta 40 – who eased himself back into the race today
and is sure to be competitive over the forthcoming stages. Kevin Benavides
rounded out the podium. The Argentinean, who started out from first place
from San Rafael, opened the track in the 309.54 kilometre special stage,
finished with a five minute deficit to Barreda.
Honda South America Rally Team riders, Javier Pizzolito and Franco Caimi
crossed the line ahead of Michael Metge, who had a hard fall in the dunes on
a tough, troublesome first day at the Desafío Ruta 40.
Tomorrow the second stage will feature a 310.24 kilometre special timed
stage and some 322 kilometres of liaison. The stage winds up in San Juan.
Joan Barreda - STAGE: 1st OVERALL: 1st
It was a good day and things went well even though it was
complicated. I had a fairly heavy setback earlier on. A large animal
walked out on me and I was unable to avoid hitting it. I fell in one
of the fast zones. Luckily, it was nothing serious, neither for me nor
for the bike. I was lucky. In the second part I tried to keep up a
good pace, but the connection with the GPS became undone. I lost some
time trying to reconnect it, but I saw that I wouldn’t be able to
sort it out so I decided to focus more on the navigation, above all in
the area with the radars. In spite of the setbacks, it all worked out
well: a good day.
|
Paulo Goncalves - STAGE: 2nd OVERALL: 2nd
The first day went pretty well. At the start I had trouble getting
into the race after six months without competing, but I got through to
the end quite happily. The bike has worked really well and we are on
the right track. Tomorrow we will try and keep up a good pace because
the work that we are doing is very important. The navigation in the
Ruta 40 is hard and it won’t be an easy race, neither will the
climate. Tomorrow I will try and enjoy the day and keep on evolving. |
Kevin Benavides - STAGE: 3rd OVERALL: 3rd
I’m fine after a very hard stage. There was a 70 kilometre area
of dunes at the start with some tough navigating. I made a few
mistakes, but I opened the track from start to finish. I had to dodge
a few animals on the first part of the special. It was a complicated
moment as I had to stop the bike to avoid having an accident. After I
had a good day, getting a feeling for the bike and feeling comfortable
with it. It is only the first day, so we will have to keep banging
away at it. |
Michael Metge - STAGE: 6th OVERALL: 6th
The day started well in the dunes. I was getting along great and
the bike was running perfectly. In a dune with low visibility I jumped
and fell in the camel grass. I hit the seat and really got hurt. Up
until the neutralization section there were a few parts that reminded
me how hard the blow had been. Things went better in the second part
with a lot clearer track without too many holes. I got back after a
bit of a delay but I hope that things will go better tomorrow.
|
Roberto Boasso - Team Manager
It was a really tough day, mainly because of the climate. There was a
lot of cold and the riders were frozen. It was 3º. This was a fast
stage with a lot of navigation. Joan fell because of an animal and
Michael fell too and was in a lot of pain from crushed vertebrae.
Paolo kept in control, like Kevin, who had a really good stage today,
opening the special. We will go on working. It is a tough race; we
sleep very little and it’s cold, but we are happy because everything
is progressing in a positive way. |
|
Results Stage 1
1 Barreda Joan SPA Team HRC 3:45'45
2 Goncalves Paulo POR Team HRC +3'37
3 Benavides Kevin ARG Team HRC +4'54
4 Pizzolito Javier ARG Honda South America Rally Team +9'08
5 Caimi Franco ARG Honda South America Rally Team +13'20
6 Metge Michael FRA Team HRC +21'03
7 Duplessis Martín ARG MED Racing Team +28'27
8 Salvatierra Juan Carlos BOL Chavo Salvatierra Racing +39'27
9 Kozac José Julián ARG Julián Kozac Rally Team +39'28
10 Ontiveros Alberto ARG San Juan Gobierno Rally Team +1:04'09
|
