Starting just behind his main rival on Stage 8, Brabec pulled out the stops to lead most of the day increasing the gap at one point to over three minutes over Branch, but after 400 km of the special he had dropped behind his teammate Adrien Van Beveren that lost him time in the final 50 kms to end the day P7. Having caught Branch early on Brabec rode with him for the majority of the day not letting the Botswanan out of his sights as he opened up his overall standings lead to 42 seconds.
“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,” explained the cagey veteran. “I caught him early on so I 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. It was still a good day to finish 7th and I’ll continue to have fun out there.”
Still, after 10 full days in the desert, the battle between Branch and Brabec rages on… and anything can happen in Dakar as Ricky reminds everyone. But with Branch starting Stage 9 in front of him, he knows exactly what he has to do to maintain his narrow lead. With riders spending the night next to Ha’il airport, they will take off for Stage 9 towards AlUla which makes a return to the route on this year’s Dakar. The ancient city will welcome the riders after a total 639 km distance, 417 km of which will test them to their limits with complicated navigation and rocky expanses keeping them on their toes.
