Dakar 2017: Malle Moto Stage 09 Update

Lyndon Poskitt took advantage of a cancelled Stage 09 to call into his sponsors at Adventure Spec, giving an update from the trenches of this year’s Dakar Rally. Lyndon currently sits second in the Malle Moto class; a class of riders who race without support crews and perform all service themselves while sleeping in tents.

All of the riders are fatigued at this point, but the Malle Moto riders are beyond exhausted. Yesterday was 1150km of riding in cold weather before a mudslide blocked the way (the reason Stage 09 was cancelled). After nearly two weeks of pushing beyond the limit and being rewarded with a few paltry hours of sleep in a tent, Malle Moto competitors are living an offroad rally version of the movie Train Spotting: a massive hallucination that may actually be real.

Adventure Spec shared a transcript of Lyndon’s brief phone call in their e-magazine Tracks, where he discusses the loss of his Sentinel speaker. This is the system that warns competitors of dangers such as other competitors approaching from behind or speed control zones. If you have watched onboard footage of Dakar over the years, you have likely heard a series of annoying beeps as riders are slowing down or stopping. That is the Sentinel in action. Riding without that aid is no small task, since racers already have a lot of hazards to manage. Be sure to check out the brief interview for the full run down.

Stage 10 will feature 751km total, with much of it at high altitude. Navigation is expected to be challenging and the changing terrain should mean a lot of rough terrain early in the stage, giving way to more rolling terrain close to the end. Toomas Triisa remains the Malle Moto leader (35th overall) by over 50 minutes over Lyndon Poskitt (44th), who in turn holds a 15 minute lead over Argentina’s Jose Kozac (45th). Sam Sunderland on the Factory KTM remains the overall bikes leader with a 20 minute margin. It has been proving a rare site for a rider to win more than one stage this year, so predicting the outcome of the bikes category is going to be difficult. This year’s rally has been a wild one.

Be sure to read Lyndon Poskitt’s update in the latest Tracks article here.