KTM's Sam Sunderland during 2017 Dakar Rally Stage 5
2017 Dakar Rally Stage 5 Results & Video
KTM’s Sam Sunderland during 2017 Dakar Rally Stage 5Stage 5 of the 2017 Dakar Rally was supposed to take riders 430 miles from Tupiza to Oruro in Bolivia, including a 278-mile special. But due to poor weather, the special was cut to 136 miles.This, along with many of his rivals getting lost, assisted Red Bull KTM Factory Rally Team’s Sam Sunderland as he became the fifth different rider to claim a stage win.
Sunderland, who claimed second in stage 3, earned Friday his second-career Dakar Rally stage win. He was the only rider that didn’t get lost in the Bolivian sand dunes. When the stage wrapped up, the Brit finished 7:07 minutes ahead of Monster Energy Honda Team’s Paulo Goncalves (Portugal) and 7:29 ahead of Yamaha Racing’s Adrien Van Beveren (France).Sunderland’s win, and an hour penalty for previous leader Joan Barreda (Monster Energy Honda Team), allowed him to claim the top overall position after five of 12 stages. Sunderland no leads Husqvarna Factory Team’s Pablo Quintanilla (Chile) by 12 minutes.“It was a tough day even though the second part was cancelled, we still had 186 miles in the rain and cold,” Sunderland says. “I started off today with a good feeling and I tried to really focus on the navigation. There were one or two really tricky places. It would be fast and then there would be a difficult part, then fast again, so you had to change the rhythm a lot. Now I have to try to stay calm and focused because it’s only day five. It was a heavy day but the bike was awesome and the team is great. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”Honda’s Joan Barreda during 2017 Dakar Rally Stage 5The previous overall leader and stage 3 winner, Barreda, had some serious issues: “Firstly, the official HRC rider received a one hour time penalty for having refueled outside the authorized zone yesterday, before having a hellish stage and getting lost after approximately 93 miles of the special. The Spaniard lost 37 minutes to the day’s winner and plunges down the general standings to 1 hour 12 minutes behind the leader,” the official Dakar press says.As for the sole American in 2017 Dakar Rally, he finished stage 5 in 28th after getting lost, 42:08 minutes behind Sunderland. Brabec is now 11th overall, exactly an hour behind Sunderland.
2017 Dakar Rally Stage 6 Preview
Saturday’s stage 6 will take riders 488 miles from Oruro to La Paz, which includes the longest special of 2017 Dakar: 327 miles. The riders then get their one and only rest day on Sunday.
Hello everyone and welcome once again to Ultimate Motorcycling’s weekly Podcast—Motos and Friends.
My name is Arthur Coldwells.
This week’s Podcast is brought to you by Yamaha motorcycles. Discover how the YZF-R7 provides the perfect balance of rider comfort and true supersport performance by checking it out at YamahaMotorsports.com, or see it for yourself at your local dealer.
This week’s episode features Senior Editor Nic de Sena’s impressions of the beautiful new Harley-Davidson Low Rider ST that is loosely based around the original FXRT Sport Glide from the 1980s. Hailing from The Golden State, these cult-status performance machines became known as West Coast style, with sportier suspension, increased horsepower, and niceties including creature comforts such as a tidy fairing and sporty luggage.
In past episodes you might have heard us mention my best friend, Daniel Schoenewald, and in the second segment I chat with him about some of the really special machines in his 170 or so—and growing—motorcycle collection. He’s always said to me that he doesn’t consider himself the owner, merely the curator of the motorcycles for the next generation.
Yet Daniel is not just a collector, but I can attest a really skilled rider. His bikes are not trailer queens, they’re ridden, and they’re ridden pretty hard. Actually, we have had many, many memorable rides on pretty much all of the machines in the collection at one time or another.
From all of us here at Ultimate Motorcycling, we hope you enjoy this episode!
