Van Beveren masters the 48 Hour Chrono for his first stage victory at this year’s Dakar Rally

One of our goals was to get to the rest day with a good result from the 48 Hour Chrono stage.  It was 100% dunes and really tough but we know that Adrien is a strong rider on this sort of terrain so it was a great result for him.  Ricky finished in a really good position in third, which sets him up well for stage seven and although Nacho did ride over 400 km opening the stage, he did a good job to not lose too much time. 

We’re still in a strong position and will prepare ourselves for the following stages with one goal in mind, winning the 2024 Dakar Rally.

Yesterday was a disastrous stage for me as I ran out of fuel just before the refuelling. At one point I thought I was out of the race because I tried to get fuel from other riders but everybody was on the limit too.  I ended up waiting for around an hour and a half to get some fuel before I could restart.  I tried to do my best but I lost so much time yesterday that unfortunately I also lost every chance to be at the front of the race.  

It’s a sad feeling when these things happen after you’ve been working so hard for this rally, but this is racing, anything can happen. I can continue though and so from here to the finish I want to enjoy the race, continue to give 100% and to end the Dakar in a good way.

There was a lot of time in the dunes but I didn’t mind that as the challenge of going for many hours and kilometres made it a lot of fun.  Camping with the boys was a blast, we had a really good time last night although we didn’t get much sleep. 

The stage was 100% dunes but it was really cool and I hope they do something like this again.

Rocks and open deserts are a bit better for me and with the dunes I really pushed but I also played it safe towards the end as I didn’t want to open stage seven.  I’m in a good place going into next week, so let’s see what happens in the next six days.

I’m gutted to have to exit the rally early.  After a less than ideal start I was looking forward to the chrono stage and the second week to claw back the time that I lost in the first couple of days.

The issue that took me out is nobody’s fault, not mine, mechanics or the team. When you’re pushing at the maximum level for this many days, luck has a big part to play and yesterday I drew the short stick. Sometimes this happens in racing and all we can do is learn from it.

Now I’m looking forward to the year ahead and focusing on being better. Failure and adversity can be the best teacher, one I’m familiar with.

I’m pleased with where I finished as the idea was to try and minimise the time lost for opening most of the stage.  I pushed as hard as I could for two days so I’m happy with my effort.  

There’s still one more full week to go so we will keep doing what we’re doing, giving our best stage by stage.  There are tricky days coming up but I’ll be in a good starting position for stage seven on Sunday.

This stage was really important for me, since we’d known what it would entail I knew that I could do well here in the dunes and make a difference.  I went fast at the beginning but emptied the first fuel tank really early so I had to change my riding style and make it smoother to try to improve my fuel economy.  I got into a good rhythm and to get the win was nice.  

I’m glad I did the 48 Hour Chrono, it was a good experience to tackle this long stage in the dunes.  Yesterday we all arrived completely destroyed, it was really physical but I’m glad that we had this opportunity.