Dakar 2024 Recap: American Ricky Brabec Grabs Historic Second Win
Daily stage updates and video recaps of the Dakar Rally 2024.
JANUARY 16, 2024: STAGE 9
The reason for the shenanigans we witnessed yesterday as top riders delayed completion of Stage 8 — some actually stopping on course to watch the minutes tick by — was evidenced in today’s terrain. Soon after departing Ha’il, once a stop on an ancient camel caravan route, navigation on the 417 km special became tricky, and tracks the delayers thought they might be able to follow were few. Including the 222 km liaison riders traveled a total of 639 km (397 miles), to reach Al Ula and the close of Stage 9.
Yesterday, Adrien Van Beveren, who led most of the way, took a gamble that didn’t pay off, leaving him none too pleased. Toward the very end of the day he’d noticed that top riders on the leaderboard were delaying their finish in order to take advantage of a later departure today. Van Beveren reluctantly followed suit, but in the end didn’t drag his feet quite enough, and ended up taking third spot for the day, losing the points he’d have earned had he led and won, and still having to open the way for his competition during today’s stage.
In Stage 9 the Frenchman was over the games. He started out strong and ended strong, leading the pack almost the entire day, taking the stage win, the fifth of his career and second this year, with a time of 4:36:46. This result turned the Frenchman’s frown upside down and moved him from fourth to third place in the general rankings.
Adrien Van Beveren “It was a tough day but a good day. I finally opened almost 400 km of the stage. Kevin [Benavides] was following and it was good support to take sometimes. I tried my best, I really tried to be consistent and I think it was a good stage. I gave my all. I have no regrets for today.”
Clocking in just 32 seconds behind Adrien Van Beveren was his Honda teammate and race leader Ricky Brabec, who started the day with an advantage of being seventh to launch. Brabec says he knew this stage was one of his only shots to widen the razor-thin gap he had over Hero rider Ross Branch, who trailed the 32-year-old American by just 42 seconds at the start of the day. Making good time was no easy task for Brabec, who again lost his rear brake, this time just before refueling. In the end his aggressive run paid off, as he now enjoys a more comfortable 7-plus minute gap over 37-year-old Branch.
Ricky Brabec: “If I can clean up tomorrow I think we’ll be set free.” Brabec also reminisced about the easier time he had with his first Dakar win: “2020 was definitely strong, but I made the gap early on, and now this has definitely been the most stressful race of my life because it’s so close.”
Placing third for the day was Pablo Quintanilla, making Stage 9 a 1-2-3 win for the Monster Energy Honda Team, another confirmation of the potency of the all-new Honda CRF 450 Rally. Quintanilla has had a troubled Dakar, with the ultimate blow coming during part one of Stage 6, when the Chilean ran out of fuel and lost nearly two hours, putting him fully out of contention. Quintanilla is currently in 17th position, nearly 5 hours behind the leaders and says his goal is now to help his team achieve victory.
Trailing Quintanilla by 6 minutes and 34 seconds was Toby Price on this KTM 450 Rally. This Dakar hasn’t been Price’s best by any means, but the good natured Aussie says he’s still having fun and riding hard despite a now 35-minute gap between him and overall leader Brabec.
Placing fifth today was the rally’s current runner-up, Ross Branch, who’s run a stellar campaign so far, even though his ride from Ha’il to Al Ula wasn’t his finest performance. Branch, the sole survivor from his Hero MotoCorp clan, says he just couldn’t find his flow today, and ensuing mistakes cost him valuable minutes and seconds.
Two stages ago, Branch trailed Brabec by a single second, a sliver of a gap that widened to 42 seconds yesterday. Ross’s off day today, combined with Brabec’s successful plot to gain time leaves the Botswana-borne airline pilot trailing his rival by 7 minutes and 9 seconds. There’s no doubt being so close to his first Dakar victory can create a turbulent headspace, and tomorrow the pressure on Ross will be enormous.
Ross Branch: “You have those bad days. It’s crunch time and I would have liked to have been up there a little bit closer today, but that’s racing. You can’t have a perfect day every day. You make some mistakes and you just have to try and manage it. At least I’m not opening tomorrow, so maybe we can push again tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes.”
José Ignacio Cornejo, third on the overall leaderboard yesterday, slid back to fourth position after making a mistake at the 100 km mark to place seventh for the day,, widening the gap between himself and frontrunner Brabec to 13 minutes and 46 seconds . Despite the setback Nacho’s still aiming for a podium finish. Kevin Benavides finished the day in sixth position, retaining his fifth place standing in the overall, though he is now nearly a half-hour off the leading time.
Meanwhile in Rally 2 Romain Dumontier on a Husky broadened the gap over runner-up KTM pilot Jean-Loup Lepan from 6 minutes and 13 seconds to 10 minutes and 56 seconds. In the Original by Motul class frontrunner Tobias Ebster and his KTM has the class win pretty much in the bag with a healthy 1 hour and 5 minute lead over Husky-riding Jerome Martiny.
Stage 9 Top 10 Motorcycle Ranking
Stage 9 Overall Top 10 Motorcycle Ranking
JANUARY 15, 2024: STAGE 8
Launching from just outside the city of Al Dawadimi in central Saudi Arabia and headed toward Ha’il, in the north of the country, the ever dwindling field of Dakar riders encountered a relatively shorter, less demanding day that included a 458-km timed special . After a 125 km road section competitors found themselves roosting into part one of the day’s timed sections, a sand fest, which was followed by a non-timed 179 km transfer. The day’s second timed portion was in sharp contrast to the morning’s sandy tracks, taking the riders through rugged terrain rich with tire-eating rocks and tricky navigation.
It was a proud day for Argentina and the brothers Benavides as they took their first-ever familial Dakar 1-2 stage finish, and in birth order no less, with KTM’s Kevin Benavides clocking in at 3 hours, 35 minutes and 3 seconds, and Husky pilot Luciano Benavides ending the day just 31 seconds behind. The result saw the brothers maintain their positions on the leaderboard, with Kevin in fifth position and Luciano in eighth.
Kevin Benavides: “It has been a really good day today – I really enjoyed the ride. The two guys opening the stage – my brother and Nacho (Cornejo) – did a really good job, but I was able to catch them both by the end. I’m so proud to win the stage and have a 1-2 with my brother. It means I’ll be opening tomorrow, so hopefully I will do a good job. I’ll give it my all, as always.”
For Luciano’s part, he was second to start the first timed special of the day and soon took the lead on his Husqvarna FR 450 Rally, where he prospered from the new bonus point handicap system created to level the playing field between those opening the way and those with the advantage of following the first riders’ hard-won tracks. Had the young Argentinean not suffered a time-stealing crash toward the end of the second half of the special he would have most certainly bested his brother.
Luciano Benavides: “I’m happy with my pace over the past few days, I definitely feel like I am racing faster than I was in week one. It’s the first time Kevin and I have done a Benavides 1-2 at the Dakar, so that’s pretty special, for us as brothers and for Argentina.”
Team Honda’s Adrien Van Beveren started the day in an advantageous ninth position where he could focus less on navigation and more on speed. And it looked for a while like the Honda jockey had the stage win in his grasp, though he gave it up to Benavides after slowing down for the last ten kilometers. He finished the day in third place, though the Frenchman doesn’t seem too happy about it, and not for the first reason that comes to mind. Turns out the next stage will be a huge navigational challenge and several of the event front runners appeared to be lollygagging in order to avoid being in the front of the pack tomorrow.
Adrien Van Beveren: “I don’t know what to say. I don’t like it when strategy takes precedence over sport. It’s frustrating to have a stage like yesterday where you have to work like crazy, and the next day a short, easy stage where there’s no point in attacking. The solution is to stop, but that’s not what I like about racing, it’s not what I like about sport. It’s no fun.”
Van Beveren wasn’t the only one upset about the calculating behavior, with race leader Ricky Brabec saying it was a tough day “because there’s a little bit of games going on out there. Tomorrow is supposed to be tricky, so people are kind of slowing down.” Ironically, the very tactic he’s criticizing seems to mirror the American hopeful’s style of play from the beginning. Brabec, who remains on top in the general rankings started out the day in fifth spot and ended in seventh.
In the bivouac, before the times were announced, the 2020 Dakar champ complained, “I’m not sure where we’re at right now. We’ll see where the other guys come in. They’re going to start behind us because I know what they’re doing out there.” It does indeed sound like a strategy Brabec recognizes, and his seventh position finish and favorable starting position for Stage 9 only shows he’s just as good or better at playing the same game, especially after timing shows he was at one point a 3 full minutes ahead of runner-up Ross Branch, but gambled it away for a better starting position tomorrow.
Ricky Brabec: I didn’t want to start too far away from Ross tomorrow so I had to play a little bit of cat and mouse with him. I caught him early on so stuck with him all day, then at the refueling point I saw some times and I was winning. I let Ross take over and open the way to the finish line as we had to play smart today and I didn’t want him starting behind me tomorrow.”
One rider who was just too busy working his tail off to dwell too much on strategy was Stage 7 winner Jose Ignacio Cornejo who blazed the trail for a good chunk of the morning, racking up a healthy handful of the bonus points. In the end the Chilean riding for Honda came in just 1 minute and 41 seconds behind stage winner Kevin Benividas, and kept his number three spot in the general rankings.
Jose Ignacio Cornejo: “It wasn’t easy. There were a lot of dunes at the beginning and very tricky navigation on rough terrain in the second part. I didn’t make any mistakes, so it’s a good day.”
Earning fifth place in Stage 8 was KTM-riding Aussie Toby Price who’s looking to make up time after a few lackluster days. Price held his own through the first half of the day, before steadily closing in on the leaders over the second, rougher half of the special. He crossed the virtual line just over two minutes behind KTM teammate Kevin Benavides, retaining sixth position overall. No doubt Price is pleased with his Goldilocks result: not too far in the front for tomorrow’s tricky stage, and not too far in the back, where he’d have forfeited much needed minutes.
Price starts tomorrow nearly 30 minutes behind the event leader Ricky Brabec, making a third Dakar victory unlikely, though not impossible.
Toby Price: “We got through pretty decently, I’d say. No major mishaps or mistakes or anything today, so on that side it was good. I’m happy with fifth for the stage, and it gives us a good position for tomorrow, but we’re just not quite where we need to be on time. I’m feeling good though, having fun out there, and now I’ll look forward to tomorrow.”
Stage 8’s strategic shuffling amongst the top pros, which saw Sherco-riding privateer Rui Gonçalves granted a sixth position finish, did not upset the order of the top ten overall, though it did reset the gaps. Hero rider Ross Branch, who began the stage in fourth position and just 1 second off Ricky Brabec’s event-leading time, is now 42 seconds behind the Honda-mounted American. Nacho Cornejo is 4 minutes and 21 seconds off the mark, followed by Adrien Van Beveren, down almost 12 minutes while reigning champ Kevin Benavides is trailing by just over 20 minutes.
Stage 9 has the riders nervous for good reason. Organizers describe the 417 kilometer special as a race across rocky plateaus that “will push [the riders] to the brink mentally.” The tracks are ominously portended to be “more felt than seen, making navigation even trickier.”
Tragic News
Tragedy has touched Dakar 2024 as we learn Spanish rider, Carles Falcón, who suffered a major crash 448 kilometers into the Stage 2 Special has succumbed to his injuries. The rider was found unresponsive by rescue crews and flown to a nearby hospital where he remained on life support for a week. Read more here.
Stage 8 Top 10 Motorcycle Ranking
Stage 8 Overall Top 10 Motorcycle Ranking
JANUARY 14, 2024: STAGE 7
On Sunday riders set out on Stage 7 from Riyadh headed for Al Dumwadimi, far from the vast dunes of the Empty Quarter and a 48-hour Chrono two-part marathon stage that reshuffled the leaderboard and ousted several top riders including Skyler Howes, Joan Barreda and Mason Klein. Though today’s stage followed a rest day, it was the longest in this year’s Dakar, beginning with a 3 am wakeup call and 390-km liaison to the start of a tricky 483-km special that led riders through a maze of rocky, winding canyon trails and finally another long stretch of dunes. That’s a whopping 873 km total ( 542 miles) for this stage.
While Honda’s Adrien Van Beveran opened the route and held the lead for some time, he eventually got off track and ended up “wandering around the dunes,” calling the day’s navigation “mind-boggling.” Eventually, it was Honda rider Juan Ignacio “Nacho” Cornejo, well-known as a master at navigation, who found the fastest path through the varied terrain, grabbing the stage win despite a rough start. This is Nacho’s third stage win in this year’s event, a historic hat trick to mark his 9th Dakar effort. Today’s result bumped Cornejo from fourth to third place in the overall standings, while Van Beveran was kicked down to fourth.
Juan Ignacio Cornejo “I was a bit off balance at the beginning. I struggled a bit with my bike and had a silly fall. Then, I regained my mental composure and thought, ‘All right, let’s go on the attack’. I pushed on, and in the end, I did a good job.”
It was current World Rally Raid Champion Luciano Benavides who was marked with the next fastest time, 3 minutes and 12 seconds off the winning count, a result he attributes to adjustments he made to his Husqvarna over the rest day. From the bivouac the 28-year-old reported that the bike felt great in all the day’s varied and challenging terrain and increased his confidence, allowing him to set a good rhythm during the special.
Luciano Benavides: “I’m really pleased with how today’s stage has gone for me. I did make a couple of mistakes that cost me some time, but on the whole, it was a really positive stage.”
However, big brother Kevin Benavides was technically the second fastest rider of the day having taken advantage of his seventh position start, and he would have beaten out his brethren had he not incurred a three minute penalty, which landed him in third spot on the podium. Despite the setback the KTM pilot’s effort was enough to elevate him from sixth to fifth place in the overall standings, while teammate Toby Price had another not-so-good day, taking eighth in the stage and dropping to sixth on the main leaderboard.
Kevin Benavides: “Going into the special, I really tried to focus on the roadbook and my navigation. Even though the terrain was really mixed, I was able to stick to a good rhythm and carry that through the whole stage. The penalty is unfortunate, but I’m happy with how I rode the stage and will carry the fight into tomorrow.”
What is sure to be the most stunning stat of the day involved the event’s overall leaders, Ross Branch and Ricky Brabec, who duked it out to place in fourth and fifth positions respectively, with a mere 50 second gap. What’s even more wild is as the day’s numbers were added to the overall leaderboard scores, only one single mind-blowing second now separates Honda’s Brabec from runner-up Hero rider Branch. It’s almost impossible to believe that after seven stages covering 2,865 km these two riders can be within a finger snap of one another.
Despite placing fourth in the Stage, Branch says the day was one he’d rather forget after some setbacks kept him from setting the pace he’d expected from himself. Still, the sole Hero pilot left in the event is making a very positive impression as he navigates his sixth Dakar.
Ross Branch: “We had a few technical issues early on in the stage, so it was really frustrating and I made a lot of mistakes. There were so many dangers and I was really riding on the limit. I just have to get the bike back, get it fixed up and ready for tomorrow.”
Ricky Brabec, who started off the day in third spot after the rest day, was hampered by the loss of his rear brake near the 50 km mark, though he still made good time. And even though a single second separates the American from his Botswanian rival in the overall standings, he’s feeling good about his odds. Always known to be a thoughtful strategist, Brabec has yet to take top place in any of the stages, including today where he clocked in 3 minutes and 31 seconds behind the winner. Judging by his quote below, we’re likely to see him continue to hang back in the pack where he can more easily launch a full-blown run at his competition.
Ricky Brabec: “The one second difference is crazy, that’s a tight race for sure. I’ve spent seven days up front opening with my teammates, so I’m kind of looking for a break at some point to come from the back and really make a charge. I don’t know when that day is going to arrive but hopefully it comes by the end of the rally, we shall see. We have five days left so we can keep pushing and hopefully secure the top spot at the end.”
Unfortunately, Neels Theric, who started the special as the highest-ranked Kove rider, in 24th place overall, has been knocked out of his second Dakar by a mechanical issue. The Chinese duo of Xiangliang and Sunier are the sole remaining Kove factory riders in the race. Cesare Zacchetti, a privateer, is also riding a Kove in the Original by Motul category (aka Malle Moto).
Tomorrow’s Stage 8, while shorter, promises to again include varied technical terrain, including a sand section with hidden rocks sure to blow a tire or two.
Spotlight: Stefan Svitko
Dakar riders come and go, especially at the privateer level, but then there are a few riders like Stefan Svitko who have turned the rally into a lifestyle. This is the Slovakian privateer’s 15th Dakar in a row, so yes, he’s seen it all, having begun his stint in 2010 the second year the rally was held in South America. He says it was much more about adventure back then, and less about sprinting to the finish.
He’s had a lot of success, finishing in the top 15 nine times, including two 5th place finishes and a 2nd in 2016, though at 41, he finds it tougher to reel in the young guns on their factory rides. He’s certainly having a good go of it this year, as he’s currently holding ninth position overall after placing well in several stages including seventh today. And sure, with so many GP riders tapping out, there is an element of luck for the fastest privateers, but in the case of Svitko, who’s riding a KTM 450 Rally Replica, his many years of experience is a priceless asset. “I already have a plan for 2024 and will do my best,” he says. “I know what I need to do.” So far, that plan seems to be working.
Stage 7 Top 10 Motorcycle Ranking
Stage 7 Overall Top 10 Motorcycle Ranking
JANUARY 13, 2024: REST DAY
JANUARY 12, 2024: STAGE 6b
The gargantuan 48-hour Chrono stage was expected to turn things on its head in this vast area of desert that with 650,000 km2 of dunes is larger than France. After an intensely long day yesterday on the first leg of the stage and experiencing the bare minimum in supplies with no outside assistance, all competitors were glad to finish the 835-km two-day stage and complete what has proved to be a long and exhausting first week at Dakar.
Among the top riders that successfully reached Bivouac F yesterday before the clock stopped, Adrien Van Beveren had just 112 km across the dunes remaining today, which the Frenchman flawlessly took on to earn him the stage win. Going into the 48h Chrono he had a deficit of nearly twenty minutes, which was reduced to just over nine as he now starts the second week third overall.
Also departing from Bivouac F, Toby Price completed the full sixth stage as runner-up. The result now moves him up into the top five overall where he trails the provisional race leader by exactly 27 minutes. Although the gap is a little higher than the two-time Dakar champion would like, he now looks ahead to the second week of competition, confident of gaining time on his rivals.
Toby Price: “The marathon stage has definitely been a little tougher than we thought it was going to be. It was such a long day yesterday – we did about 513 kilometers in the dunes and raced for around six hours and 40 minutes! At the bivouac, we were just given a sleeping bag, a tent, a small box of food rations and tried to get some sleep. Today was good – just 112 kilometers – and it felt great to reach the finish line. We all deserve our rest day, that’s for sure. Overall, at the end of this first week, I’m feeling good, and the bike has been faultless. We’re not quite where we’d hoped we would be in terms of time, but there’s still a whole second week to go, so we’re ready for it.”
Third to the finish line was Honda’s Ricky Brabec, who has been consistent since the start of this edition allowing him to take the lead in the general rankings and keep on hoping to pick up a second title after his first in 2020. Meanwhile, Daniel Sanders placed just outside the podium in fourth, ahead of Ross Branch who finished fifth in the stage moving him down to second overall.
Elsewhere, it was the end of the race for American Mason Klein who in spite of numerous setbacks throughout the event (see stage 2 & 3 below) has refused to give up. Unfortunately today things got to a point of no return after he woke up this morning to his Kove bike not starting. With no outside assistance during the marathon stage, the 22-year-old was unable to fix his machine and was forced to throw in the towel. The young privateer has inspired the rider community with his grit and perseverance in the face of so many challenges he has had to overcome for this Dakar. Without a doubt he’ll come back stronger than ever next year.
Meanwhile, his sponsor Kove continues on with three factory riders in the competition. Among these, Neels Theric holds the highest ranking, currently 24th overall, following his 30th place finish on the stage.
Stage 6 Top 10 Motorcycle Ranking
Stage 6 Overall Top 10 Motorcycle Ranking
JANUARY 11, 2024: STAGE 6a
Today saw riders face the gargantuan dunes of the Empty Quarter in what was the first half of the ‘48-hour Chrono’ – a new marathon format with riders covering a total of 758 kilometers over two days of racing. At 4pm local time, all competitors had to stop at the next bivouac they came to where outside assistance is prohibited and where they will camp out on their own.
When racing through such a rugged landscape and long distances it is essential to take mechanical aspects into account, and that starts with a basic parameter: managing how much fuel you have. Pablo Quintanilla, who ran out of fuel ten kilometers before the first refueling point, paid a hefty price for his negligence and, after 424 km, has dropped down the rankings by more than 1 hour and 40 minutes.
Several of his teammates on the Honda team, for whom he will now be able to act as a water carrier, were wiser as well as more efficient and can still envision triumphing in Yanbu, notably Ricky Brabec who clocked the second fastest time in the stage and is now the virtual leader of the general rankings with an advantage of 2’48’’ over Ross Branch. The same can be said for Adrien Van Beveren, the day’s quickest rider up to point F, located after 537 kilometers, where ten riders will be spending the night tonight.
Behind Brabec’s dust, KTM’s Toby Price pushed hard right from the start, as he chased down the 14 riders ahead of him, Toby moved into third place on the timesheets by kilometer 200 – a position he defended to the close of today’s racing. For GasGas’ Daniel Sanders, he was running up front from the start and covered an incredible 513 kilometers in a little over six and a half hours to reach the sixth bivouac. Currently, fourth on stage and moving up to seventh overall as it stands.
Unfortunately it is the end of the road for Honda’s Skyler Howes and Joan Barreda after experiencing a mechanical issue they were unable to resolve.
Provisional results Stage 6a (final results for Stage 6 will be available after completion of Part 2).
- Adrien Van Beveren (Honda) 6:30:39
- Ricky Brabec (Honda) 6:32:00
- Toby Price (KTM) 6:32:28
- Daniel Sanders (GASGAS) 6:34:11
Overall Provisional Classification (after stage 6a)
- Ricky Brabec (Honda) 25:40:50
- Ross Branch (Hero) 25:43:38
- Jose Ignacio Cornejo (Honda) 25:47:27
- A. Van Beveren (HONDA) 25:53:52
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following to see how the Chinese KOVE bikes perform when the duel is over
We just did an update on the Kove bikes in the review of the Stage 12 final. Hope you saw it.
best place to follow live timing: https://dakartiming.eu/