Dakar 2018: Hunt and Poskitt deliver in the dunes

Stage 3 – Pisco to San Juan De Marcona 296km timed special stage, 208km liaison

It was another good day for British riders Lyndon Poskitt and Max Hunt who ended up spending a lot of today’s stage riding together with Poskitt securing 45^th place and Hunt 46^th.

Their results over the last two days have seen them progress steadily up the leader board with Hunt now 44^th overall and Poskitt 48^th and second in the Malle Moto class where riders aren’t allowed any outside assistance and have to do all their won maintenance.

Speaking to MCN, Poskitt said: “It was a hard day of riding and navigation. I got caught out by one dune which had a really steep drop off. I got on the brakes and broke through the top of it but I ended up dropping off, the front dug in and I went over the bars and the bike landed on me. I slid out and it wasn’t a big problem, but it cost me a bit of time.

“I came really close to running out of fuel on stage two but I got the guys to completely brim the tank and I had no worries today even though the special was longer. I think I was carrying a lot more momentum today, which is good on the up hills, but can be a problem if you arrive at a drop off too fast.”

Hunt continues to impress in the dunes and also had the complication of riding with a badly bruised knee after getting spectacularly knocked off his scooter outside the bivouac by a car. 

He said: “It was a sick stage! There was one part where there was a big run of rolling dunes – one after the other and it was fast. I started to get a bit cautious as I just had a feeling that one of them wasn’t going to be so rolling. Then my anti collision alarm went off, I backed off and there was a massive drop off and there were three riders – two of them attending one guy and his bike was in bits. I managed to stay on but I rode over part of his navigation tower which had been ripped off his bike in the crash. 

“I had a good tussle with Lyndon and we caught and passed each other a couple of times in the dunes which was good. Tomorrow we have the mass start – 15 bikes at a time and I’m looking forward to that.” 

Brits Overall position after Stage 3

1^st    Sam Sunderland              GBR                 KTM                 6h44m23s

46^th Max Hunt                         GBR                 Husqvarna       + 1h44m14s

50^th Lyndon Poskitt                  GBR                 KTM                 +1h50m55s