Dakar stage 5 Team Galag : « Now heading to stage 6 before rest day »

Today, something never done in the Dakar before happened. Organizers took benefits of a 3 days stay in Riyadh to implement something new in the rally’s history: motorbikes used a different stage than the cars and trucks, meaning we drove the stage that bikes will race tomorrow and vice versa.

That also means we left Riyadh early this morning but came back well before night time, allowing everyones a bit more margin to perfect cars conditions and get ready for the next day.

Stage 5: 421km, first ‘loop’ around Riyadh
The Dakar headed to the east of Riyadh to tackle a special stage that marked an abrupt change in tone from the previous ones. Starting with a fast ride through open areas and traces inside a plateau in some sections of vegetation, competitors entered a very slow zone with trial passes and a lot of stones. After this, some difficult navigation on sandy tracks with hidden rocks inside valleys and canyons happened before some dune crossing and faster parallel tracks to finish.

A good stage for Jerome & Mika (12th), back in 7th in T4 class.

This morning we decided to use stronger tires to minimize risks of puncture as the stage was announced to be full of hidden rocks. That was actually the wrong choice as the terrain wasn’t as tough as expected. Still, we had one puncture but all went fine beside it, the pace was pretty good, even though we could have been better with our « default » tires. We are now back in 7th overall as our competitors lost some time or received some penalties.

It sounds like a reward before the second loop around Riyadh tomorrow and the well deserved rest day that all the bivouac will get saturday before second week starts !

Jérôme de Sadeleer – Driver : « A long stage today witless kilometers the yesterday, but a lot slower. The tire choice was definitely wrong, and not confortable so I took it easy. Once the rocky parts passed I pushed a bit more and finished 12th of the day. Now heading to stage 6 before rest day »

Mika Metge – Navigator : « Once again a long stage, maybe the hardest one so far. Rocks, sand dunes, fastbacks… We made a tire choice that wasn’t the best, so we tried to pay attention to the rocks while keeping a good pace. Tomorrow will we go for a more conservative tire choice and will try to do better! »

Cyril Neveu – Team Manager : « Jerome perfectly understood it was easier to drive outside the tracks created by the 100 of competitors that passed before him; this saves the car and also allows some time gain compare to the ones folllowing these deep prints on the sand. »

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