While Ricky Brabec cruised through the Prologue to finish lucky 13, today in Stage 1, he is Top American. Meanwhile his HRC Monster Rally Teammate Tosha went from winning the Prologue to out of Dakar 2024 just like that: “Winner of the prologue yesterday, Tosha Schareina crashed at km 240 during Stage 1,” reports Rally Control. “He was evacuated from the stage by the medical service with an injured arm.”
“You couldn’t even count the amount of rocks out there and when you’re trying to dodge them and read your notes it’s tough,” said Brabec after a long day in the saddle. “You don’t want to crash on the rocks, you don’t want to miss a note so it’s finding that balance. The navigation was definitely hard today and so was the riding. The plan for tomorrow is just to make it to the next bivouac without making any big mistakes.”
Standings at the end of Stage 1 show Brabec bouncing back from 13th in the Prologue and Prologue winner Tosha airlifted out with a broken wrist. Brabec has now gone up to second, 12 minutes behind Ross Branch, while his HRC teammates José Ignacio Cornejo moved up to 4th, Pablo Quintanilla and Adrien Van Beveren have just a few seconds between them in 9th and 10th, while Skyler Howes is in 17th.
Riders will be resting up at Al Henakiyah, recharging before Stage 2 — 655 km total with a 463 km Special. The dune surfers will enjoy 30 km of sand mixed with long, fast stretches from Al Henakiyah to Al Duwadimi. This is only just the beginning of what the next longer stages will bring as it’ll be a proper test of man and machine in the Saudi Arabian heat.
