Arcarons sprints clear in the dunes
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Your support makes all the difference.Jordi Arcarons, the Spanish rider, won the Dakar Rally's sixth motorcycle stage yesterday, the first leg in the gruelling race to feature dune-crossings.
In the car category, Jean-Louis Schlesser, the two-time former champion from France, was forced to retire from the stage which linked Er-Rachidia in eastern Morocco to the central town of Ouarzazate after his self-designed, diesel-powered buggy caught fire.
Schlesser, ranked ninth overall after five stages, and his Andorran co-pilot Henri Magné were unhurt in the incident, race organisers said.
Schlesser won the Dakar Rally in 1999 and in 2000. He was headed for victory in last year's race but drew a one-hour penalty for starting early in the final stage and finished fourth overall. He lost an appeal against the penalty.
Arcarons, riding a KTM bike, was fastest in the 338km (209.56 mile) timed section of the 576km stage, which was mostly bumpy and rocky but also gave competitors their first taste of sand dunes.
Arcarons recorded a time of 3hr 40min and 58sec, edging out his compatriot Joan Roma and Finland's Kari Tianen. Roma moved into the overall race lead.
Some 300 cars, motorbikes and trucks are competing in the 9,436km trek across France, Spain and the northwestern Sahara desert. The race finishes on 13 January in the Senegalese capital, Dakar.
Today, competitors begin the first of two elongated stages, a 1,541km stretch through the Sahara from here to Zouerat in Mauritania. There is an obligatory six-hour rest period at Tan-Tan in southern Morocco after the first half of the stage.
On the Net: www.dakar.com/index.html
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