Dakar Stage 1 - David Casteu and Sherco surprise early leaders

Frenchman David Casteu was the surprise leader at the end of stage one of the 2010 Argentina Chile Dakar Rally. Onboard the factory Sherco 450XX, Casteu took 1:50.42s to complete the 219KM Special which form,ed part of a 620KM opening day.

Second place went to former winner Cyril Despres riding the air restricted KTM 690, the 35 year old finished just three seconds behind Casteu with 2009 Darak champion Marc Coma in third riding a KTM 690.

In an event that has histrorically been dominated by KTM, Chilean rider Lopez Contardo claimed fifth onboard his Aprilia RXV450 making it two new manufactueres along with Sherco at the front of the race.

Top Brit was Craig Bounds in 38th – 17.45s behind the leader with Andrew Neri 116th and Phillip Noone in 117th. Duncan Tweedy claimed 122nd with Tamsin Jones 135th and Paul Carlyle in 143rd.

Stage 1 Results
Saturday 2nd January 2010

Connection 317KM
Special 219KM
Connection 84KM

1 003 CASTEU (FRA)  SHERCO 01:50:42 00:00:00 
2 002 DESPRES (FRA)  KTM 01:50:45 00:00:03 
3 001 COMA (ESP)  KTM 01:50:54 00:00:12 
4 006 VILADOMS (ESP)  KTM 01:52:27 00:01:45 
5 009 LOPEZ CONTARDO (CHL)  APRILIA 01:53:24 00:02:42 
6 012 FRETIGNE (FRA)  YAMAHA 01:53:39 00:02:57 
7 011 PRZYGONSKI (POL)  KTM 01:53:52 00:03:10 
8 010 GONÇALVES (PRT)  BMW 01:54:11 00:03:29 
9 019 FARIA (PRT)  KTM 01:54:45 00:04:03 
10 005 RODRIGUES (PRT)  YAMAHA 01:55:12 00:04:30 

British
38 058 BOUNDS (GBR)  KTM 02:08:27 00:17:45
116 105 NERI (GBR)  KTM 02:32:23 00:41:41 
117 104 NOONE (IRL)  KTM 02:32:35 00:41:53 
122 154 TWEEDY (GBR)  KTM 02:36:32 00:45:50
135 131 JONES (GBR)  YAMAHA 02:45:18 00:54:36
143 141 CARLYLE (GBR)  KTM 02:53:35 01:02:53