Price bounces back
After seeing overall hopes disappear through bad luck, Australia’s Toby Price bounced back well at the Dakar Rally.
Price was sitting pretty in sixth in his first attempt at the Dakar on four wheels, but slumped to 31st on Stage 4 due to axle issues.
However, Price and Sam Sunderland bounced back on Stage 5 where they ended the 492km journey from Al Henakiyah to Alula 11th overall.
This saw the Overdrive Toyota combination rise from 31st to 26th in the general classification.
Back on track, Price was pleased to recover from the day that “killed us.”
“We had a much better day today, but yesterday killed us,” he said. “It is what it is, unfortunately it didn’t work this time round. I’m just disappointed because I let everyone down who’s on the side of the car who made all this possible.
“We’ll just try and get good stage results now and take it from there. It hurts for the moment, but we’re looking forward to the rest day tomorrow. Today’s stage was not too bad.
“We got through it, we lost some time but we were a long way back.
“We’re just in management mode at the moment. We didn’t really have enough tyres after yesterday’s stage, so we just tried to get through and keep it safe.
“We’re looking forward to the rest day tomorrow and the rest of next week.
“Hopefully we can do well on some stages and see what we can do.”
One of the big lessons Price has learnt from the experience is the reliance on tyres.
“On the 48 HR Chrono stage I did 940 kilometres on all the same tyres and didn’t get one single flat and then in the space of about thirty kilometres I got four flat tyres, I couldn’t work out why,” he said.
“The last one I got was in a 30 kmph speed zone, I think I dropped into a riverbed and sliced my last tyre.
“It’s super frustrating, a bummer for the first week. But other than that, we’ll regroup and get ready for the second week.
“I feel 100% safer in the car, when we’re going through those stones, I’m super glad I’m in a car.
“But there’s so many moving parts in these things, but when you’re rolling around on what is basically a bag of air, you’re putting your life on the line with a tyre.
“You can spend triple the amount, you can spend ten million dollars but then you get four flat tyres and your day is done. It is what it is.
“I just guess I’m bummed out for the sponsors that are on-board with it.
“We’ll try and see if we can get a couple of good stage results to keep them happy. It’s been a tough first week, but we’ll keep at it.”
Image: Flavien Duhamel / Red Bull Content Pool
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