We arrive in Al Duwadimi after a very exhausting day, it was very tough for the riders as there was also a long liaison, then the long stage and also a transfer in the middle of it.
Adrien opened the stage with a really good pace, his navigation was excellent and with the bonus he finished second. It was amazing what he did today. Ricky set off from a good position and he took care of the bike, settled into a good rhythm and then won the stage. Tosha also did a good job finishing fourth which keeps him in second overall. I believe he can get some good results over the coming days. Skyler made a small mistake in the beginning of the stage and then struggled with the bike a little bit in the dunes. He got to the end in eighth so he will have a good starting position for tomorrow. Pablo rounded out the top ten so it was a really good day for Monster Energy Honda HRC.
Tomorrow’s stage is a loop around Al Duwadimi, it has been reduced in distance because a lot of riders didn’t finish today, but no doubt it’ll be another tough day on this year's Dakar Rally.

We had many hours on the bike but it was good.  The day was in two parts, the first part was a fast hard packed piste with some riverbeds and tricky navigation between the canyons, then we had a big neutralisation, almost 200km.  The second part was sandy with some dunes and very fast. Honestly, I felt good, I enjoyed the day.  When we got to the dunes there were a lot of people and cars and it got me confused and I ended up in the wrong valley which lost me some minutes to find the right way.  Without that I think my riding was good so I’m happy for that.

We’re not in first, so we’re not controlling the game, but we’re just trying to do our best to make up time to better our overall position.  I think there’s other people out there playing games and right now we’re just trying to manage ourselves and do the best we can.  With regard to the day I’m happy with my riding and navigation.  I’m also happy that Ross is OK, I saw where he crashed and pushed the rescue button. I saw the helicopter was just across the valley so I figured for me, it was better to ride across to it for a few kilometres and get the helicopter rather than try to phone them.  At the end of the day he’s good which is the main thing.  We still have six days of racing with a lot of time to make up, so we’ll do our best and hopefully get some bonus time tomorrow and have no tablet issues so we don’t have any complaints with the tablet this race.

It was a challenging day, I’ve said that probably every single day to be totally honest. The morning actually started out fine, the first section was going well even though I made a bit of a small navigation mistake.  I was making my way back and gained a little bit of time back, but in the dunes I had some bike set up issues and so I lost a bit more time and didn’t really nail that second half.  It was a bit frustrating as it was a super long day out there, but I’m happy to be back in the bivouac to rest and gear up for another day tomorrow.

I’m very very happy about my day.  I opened all day and you know when you start first and you arrive still leading, it was a tough day of navigation.  We had sand and dunes at the end as well, so normally you tend to lose a lot of time when you have to open that, but I’m really proud of what I’ve done today and looking forward to tomorrow and the next few days.  I’m feeling really good on the bike but there are still a lot of kilometres to do so we will keep focused. 

It was a hard day again with the two parts of the stage.  The first part was more about navigation and the second was super fast with sandy sections and dunes.  It was crazy out there with a lot of local cars. I knew that we were cutting down to Daniel and the guys in front, so I tried to push, but also wanted to arrive safely here at the bivouac so I’m ready for tomorrow’s stage.