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Written by KTM Press Release   

KTM factory rider Marc Coma continued his quest to be the first winner in the first Dakar Rally to be held in South America consolidating his overall lead in the standings after Stage Nine.

Tricky navigation today allowed those starting further down the field to catch the front runners – a situation that bought some relatively unknown names into the top 10. It was KTM rider Frans Verhoeven who won the stage after starting at 33rd ahead of David Frétigné (at 3’09) with local hero Francisco (Chaleco) Lopez third (at 3’40). Coma (Repsol KTM) came home in fourth place trailing the leader by just 4’59 and factory teammate Cyril Despres (Red Bull KTM) was fifth (at 6’03). KTM factory riders, Alain Duclos (Kaestle KTM) was tenth (at 17’18) while Jordi Viladoms was behind him at eleventh (at 18’14).
 
While stage winners come and go the overall leader board remains remarkably static with Marc Coma managing his lead in imperial style. There was virtually no change in the order after the dunes of Copiapo this evening, with Frétigné second (at 1h04’38) and Despres third (at 1h34’38).
 
Marc Coma (Repsol KTM) 4th (at 4’59) and 1st overall
Today was a typical day of rally-raid, the sort you might find in Africa, in fact it reminded me a lot of certain types of terrain in Morocco. Early on we came quite close to the sea and there were tracks everywhere – and it wasn’t easy to find the right one! Me, Chalico (Lopez) and Cyril (Despres) rode much of the day together, occasionally joined by Frétigné. Overall I’d say it was a hard stage, made harder by tricky navigation. The good news is that my rear mousse performed perfectly. 
 

KTM factory riders Marc Coma (Spain) and Cyril Despres (France) continued on Sunday to show why they are the world best rally riders with Despres winning Stage Eight of the Dakar 2009 in front of Coma who continues to retain a commanding lead.

In fighting form after the rest day, the stage victory went to Despres (Red Bull KTM) 1′49 ahead of Coma (Repsol KTM) with local hero Francisco Lopez (KTM) third (at 2′56). David Frétigné, Jonah Street and Ullevalseter all ran into problems allowing Cyril to move up two places to third overall. He is now less than 30 minutes from second-placed Frétigné in the overall standings. Coma continues to maintain an impressive lead of 1h06′28 over Frétigné. He also has a 1h33′34 over Cyril. Alain Duclos (Kaestle KTM) had his best day of the rally so far, finishing fourth (at 12′39) with Jordi Viladoms fifth (at 13′12).

Cyril Despres (Red Bull KTM) 1st and 3rd overall (at 1h33′34)

The man who makes the modification to the road book, Jean-Pierre Fontenay said in his notes that today was more rally and than rally-raid and he wasn’t joking, we must have taken 2000 corners. We were riding on something like a smooth white laterite piste and there wasn’t much grip. I tried to stay standing up the whole time, shifting my weight back when braking and then moving it to the middle when accelerating. At refuelling I saw that I had come back on Marc and Lopez and that Fretigne and Street were losing time. Then just after the CP1 we had a tricky bit of off-piste. Towards the end Francisco really attacked and that suit me fine as I wanted to put as much time between me and the guys behind me. Moving up to third has really given me a boost.