Cornejo piles on the pressure with victory on stage two

After yesterday's tough stage due to Tosha's crash it was a good day for the team with Nacho Cornejo's stage win and he is now second overall with Ricky in third.  Pablo was leading the stage until the halfway point when he made a navigation error and lost valuable time.  Adrien also made a couple of mistakes and Skyler is gradually feeling better which is a good thing.  They are all happy with the bike but it is still only just the beginning of the Dakar.

It was a long stage like yesterday but a bit smoother and with less rocks. I started at a good pace although it was quite dusty and just before the refuelling I made a mistake on a note and lost some time.  But we are on the right track because the race has only just started.

It’s only day two and we have ten days left, it’s a long rally but I’m happy to be here and to ride in a group with my teammates.  If you can ride in a group with other people it all makes it fun.  It’s always difficult to open the road especially when the stage is 460 km long, but I’m happy to be here, so let’s keep the good vibes rolling and make it to the finish line.

It was a better result than yesterday but I’m still falling short of what I expect out of myself.  I was pushing hard on the tracks and when you do this you either have to focus on the terrain or on the road book and to do both at a super high speed is difficult to do.  I was managing and doing a pretty good job but twice I made some mistakes which was totally my fault.  

The stage itself was really fun as we had more rocks out there which I enjoyed.  I feel like I rode better through them and I feel fresher than I did yesterday, so all in all it was a good day.

It was another tough stage, it was very long with tricky navigation and tracks everywhere so it was easy to make mistakes.  I caught the front group and then we rode together which was fun.  It’s always nice to push but I did have a crash and Ricky (Brabec) and Ross (Branch) stopped to make sure I was OK before we continued on.  Fortunately it wasn’t too bad for me or the bike so I’m happy with the result today, winning stages is always good. 

It was a tough day, I tried to go fast and was pushing on the tracks but I was struggling too much with the road book and got lost.  My speed was good and I felt really comfortable on the bike so I’ll take these positives into tomorrow’s stage.