Thixton still in the mix at Dakar Rally
ZIMBABWE’S Ashley Thixton on Saturday avoided being one of the early casualties of the bikes section of the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia when he returned home safely in 44th place.
Thixton later dropped to 74th place following yesterday’s tough Stage Two of the gruelling race in the Saudi dunes.
Nacho Cornejo was the winner of Stage Two yesterday.
The Chilean opened the road together with Ricky Brabec and Botswana’s Ross Branch and played his cards right to pick up his seventh Dakar stage win, the first since stage 12 last year.
Branch is still 2’30” ahead of Cornejo at the top of the virtual overall.
Third in the Rally-Raid World Cup last year, Jean-Loup Lepan claimed the Rally 2 special and gained time on his compatriot Romain Dumontier and Bradley Cox in the overall. He is now third in the ranking, 17’06” behind Dumontier.
Riding in the opening stage one of the tough 15-day 2024 Dakar Rally which kicked off on Friday with a Pro-logue, Thixton did extremely well to climb up to a provisional placement of 44th from 105th at the end of the day on Saturday.
And the 30-year-old Zimbabwean biker said he was “super chuffed” by his performance.
“A great day out, managed to climb up to a provisional placement of 44th from 105!
“Super chuffed but remaining calm as (there is) still a long road ahead,” Thixton said ahead of yesterday’s Stage Two of the biggest and toughest motor rallying event in the world where he is Zimbabwe’s sole representative.
There were challenging riders right from the start of the event, organisers delivered a short but technical pro-logue on Friday to decide the start order for Saturday’s stage one.
And Thixton managed to complete the 27-kilometre course in 44th position.
Totalling 544 kilometres, with a timed special of 414 kilometres, the first full day of racing at the 2024 Dakar proved to be hugely demanding for all riders as they travelled from AlUla to Al Henakiyah.
Rocky tracks through canyons and past volcanoes, combined with tough navigation, tested the riders’ focus and physical endurance to their fullest.
With another long, 463-kilometre special scheduled for yesterday, the Zimbabwean rider was looking at enjoying another outing in this year’s Dakar where Prologue stage winner and early rally leader Tosha Schareina crashed out in the early stages of the race.
But Thixton had to settle for 74th place as he slowly works his way to finish the whole course and become one of the history makers after 15 days of racing in the Saudi desert. Schareina (Honda) is out after crashing at the 240km mark, the Spaniard fracturing his arm in the process.
He was not the only one to go down as Joaquim Rodrigues also crashed out of the rally on his Hero at the 82km marker.
However, Rodrigues’ teammate, Botswanan Ross Branch, kept everything together to take the Stage 1 win, his fourth career Dakar triumph.
Branch secured a compelling victory in Dakar 2024’s first bike stage, taking the overall lead, while Bradley Cox claimed fourth and first among the R2 class privateers. Unfortunately, Michael Docherty crashed out of the lead. Despite Docherty’s misfortune, Branch’s compassionate stop to aid a fallen rival earned him a credited time and a commanding eleven-minute win.
Another excellent performance was that of a number of pre-race favourites had a stage to forget on Saturday with current Dakar champion Kevin Benavides eighth, Daniel Sanders (GasGas) ninth, Sam Sunderland (GasGas) 14th, and Toby Price