After a disastrous Prologue, Skyler Howes has moved up from dead last to finishing 4th on Stage 3! “Today was another fun stage,” he said at the end of the first Marathon Section. “Good mixture of anything you could want in a Dakar stage. Still not perfect, had to do a few donuts to find the right way again. Making some more improvements and feeling better each day! But the navigation is really tricky and it’s easy to get caught out. Toby Price and I rode together pretty much the whole stage which made things much more fun… Until we came up on Sebastien Bühler who had a gnarly crash at a road crossing. Heal up quick dude!”
Race Control waived the time spent at Bühler’s side. Howes finished the long stage in 4th place which was just six seconds behind his HRC Honda / Monster Energy teammate Adrien Van Beveren on the day and improved his overall potion to 12th.
Stage 4 will be another long day of riding as the exploration of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia continues at pace heading to the city of Al-Hofuf which is situated in the Al-Ahsa Oasis, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A 299 km stage and 332 km liaison will be served up on the second half of this marathon stage before riders reunite with their teams.
Dakar Rally Results - Stage 3
Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Constructor Time/Gap
1 BENAVIDES Kevin 1 ARG Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team KTM 04H 39' 28"
2 BRABEC Ricky 9 USA Monster Energy Honda Team Honda +01.11
3 VAN BEVEREN Adrien 42 FRA Monster Energy Honda Team Honda +02.51
4 HOWES Skyler 10 USA Monster Energy Honda Team Honda +02.57
5 BRANCH Ross 16 BWA Hero Motorsports Team Rally Hero +03.18