In yesterday’s day Ross Branch took home his second win stage despite the navigation problems encountered along the way. Behind him, second, Adrien Van Beneveren who finished just 21″. An excellent performance that allowed him to reduce his gap in the general standings by about 5′ and bring it to just under 10′. He closed the podium of the day the South African rookie Michael Docherty +03″ from the leader.
Kevin Benavides then established himself as leader in the general standings, who in yesterday’s stage took the lead with a lead of 01’29” over Howes and 02’10” over Price.
Here we are at stage 11 of the Dakar 2023, with Ross Branch paving the way for the first part of the race. today’s route includes “only” 426.7 km, with 273 of these in the special stage. The expected day bonuses reward the three riders who pave the way in the first 142 kilometers of the day’s special, up to the refueling point. The bonuses are as follows: 1.5” per km for the first runner; 1” per km for the second; 0.5” per km for the third. In total, today a forerunner could accumulate about 3’30” of advantage.
Luciano Benavides he set the provisional best time after 20 km. The Chilean has only a few seconds ahead of Nacho Cornejo, Franco Caimi, Kevin Benavides and Daniel Sanders. Ross Branch, the first rider to start, has already conceded 2 minutes. His 29” bonus for the moment is not enough to make a difference. The “Husky boys” show good pace, with Luciano Benavides boasting the fastest time ahead of Skyler Howes, Pablo Quintanilla, Kevin Benavides and Daniel Sanders. At the refueling point, the top 5 were in less than 2 minutes.
After 189km, the situation is similar to the previous time check. The Husqvarna bikes of Luciano Benavides and Skyler Howes are the fastest. Daniel Sanders has raised the pace and is third, 2’02” behind Luciano. Pablo Quintanilla is 4th, 2’16” behind and Kevin Benavides is 5th, 3’22” behind his brother. At the end of the special it was Luciano Benavides who obtained the best time and won stage 11, with teammate Skyler Howes taking back the leadership of the general classification, with only 28″ from Toby Price. The podium of stage 11 was completed instead with Daniel Sanders closing with the second best time of the day, 1’38” from the winner and Toby Price who is 3rd at 1’56”.
On the following pages you will find how the blues fared in the race, the complete classification of the stage, the general classification of the Dakar 2023some info on the next stages and how to follow the race on TV.
