The special stage was only 128 km long. The first section crossed chotts filled with bushes, which kept the speeds relatively low. The second part, however, was completely different: deep, heavy sand with bumpy pistes that felt more like motocross terrain. It suited the riders who enjoy those kinds of conditions.

Tosha didn’t have the stage he was hoping for. He wanted to start further back tomorrow and tried a specific strategy, but in the end he didn’t finish far enough down the order, so in my opinion it wasn’t the best decision. We’ll see what he can do tomorrow. Ricky finished fourth and now has a strong starting position for the next stage. With three fast riders ahead of him, he’ll have a good opportunity to try and recover time on the leaders. Adrien, who finished fifth, really enjoys this kind of terrain, especially the sandy second section and he rode very well.

Skyler had more problems with his tablet, just like yesterday and unfortunately lost time again because of it.

Tomorrow will be a huge stage. The organisers estimate almost five hours of riding time, so it will be a very long and demanding day. The route includes all kinds of terrain and climbs close to 3,000 metres in altitude. It’s going to be a real challenge.

The day was good, stage two got cut a little bit short, like 200 km short. So, short and sweet today with a big transfer at the end. I made one mistake early on but it is what it is. I’m just here riding and getting some training in, so all is good, the team is doing great and we’re doing the best job we can.

Stage two was short but a super physically demanding one. It was 128 km with a lot of sand whoops, really really tight trees and like pokey trees too and I got some thorns stuck in my arm. It’s kind of like acupuncture, so if I move just right then I can’t use my fingers, so that was exciting. Today, I unfortunately had another tablet malfunction and I got lost this time, so that was a real big bummer and it is what it is. But I still feel like I rode good and just pushed hard until the end and did what I could. It was almost 700 km today but only 120 km of racing, still a long day, but tomorrow’s going to be a big one, so we’ll keep pushing.

It was intense even though it was a short special stage. We went through a lot of bushes, tough vegetation and then sandy tracks, really nice, bumpy and I tried to be fast but I made a small mistake at 68 km, went the wrong way and then went off piste for awhile before I could get back on track. I really gave my best, I improved from yesterday, so we will try to get better everyday.

Today was short, they cut the stage more or less in the middle. We did 128 km and it was good, strategy for today was not to push a lot because we don’t want to start in front tomorrow. I think all the riders thought the same so we are all in the same timings except Daniel, he wanted to push. We came third today and we will see for tomorrow because it will be a longer stage.