After a mammoth journey to the end of stage 12 today on the Dakar, British rider Sam Sunderland wins on the Gas Gas machine.
Quintanilla won the stage some 18sec ahead of Price, with Cornejo, Bort & Klein closely behind. Luciano Benavides had a strong showing in 6th with KTM Walkner 7th and Sam Sunderland coming in 8th some 3:25mins off the pace…but that was enough to take the title.
So Sunderland comes in first overall ahead of Quintanilla, Walkner and Van Beveren who were all hoping to make up time but in the end the positions remained the same as yesterday.
Both Gas Gas riders; Sunderland and Daniel Sanders were showing great form at the start of the Dakar with Sanders taking some early wins but then had to retire due to injury but the consistency of Sunderland, coupled with a few stage wins himself saw off the competition in a tightly fought contest…the likes of which had not been seen for many years with so much of the field in contention up to the last couple of days.
This was a great start to the year for Sunderland after his first win in 2017 and close podiums in recent years. Let’s hope he can continue for the rest of the championship. Job done. Congrats!