It was a tough day for the boys on their first Dakar. They’re here to learn and today was a real challenge - a marathon stage with gruelling kilometres on the sand dunes. Preston is still leading overall in Rally2, despite finishing sixth. It was another strong stage for him. Martim, in fourth, had to stop to assist a rider who had crashed. He lost a bit of time at the start, but after helping, he picked up the pace and finished in a good position. Let’s see how tomorrow goes, we’re one step closer to the finish in Yanbu.

The marathon stage has ended and I’m super happy to be in one piece, me and the bike. Yesterday, started pretty bad with a navigation mistake for myself at 40 km. It was a super good stage for me to push, it was hard pack, but I made a mistake and lost time before I realised it. Today was going good, super soft dunes, super difficult. I then had to help a rider that had crashed, I was the first to arrive so I was there with him for a bit. No question, I had to stop and help. I’m happy overall with how it has gone.

It was a long two days. Yesterday, it was quite high speed and had some dunes at the end. I got through the rocks, it was a little tricky navigation early yesterday and I did a pretty good job of getting through it. Today, was all dunes and really soft ones, so just had to push and do my best. I made it here and I think we’re in a good position to keep fighting for the next couple of days. Today, was pushing through the really soft white dunes and they weren’t so big, but really soft, so had to get off a couple of times and flip the bike around and make my way through there. I’m still enjoying it and having a great time out here.