Dakar Rally: France's Despres wins eighth stage

Santiago (Chile), Jan 14 (IANS) France’s Cyril Despres (Yamaha) won the eighth stage of the Dakar Rally motorcycle race.

Despres, a six-time rally winner, covered the 462-km route between Uyuni in Bolivia and Calama, in northern Chile, in 4 hours, 44 minutes and 54 seconds before finishing the eighth stage Monday, reports Xinhua.

Spain’s Marc Coma (KTM) came in second, 2 minutes and 20 seconds behind, and Joan Barreda (Honda) came in third 2:52 minutes later.

Portugal’s Helder Rodrigues (Honda) came in fourth position (6:38) and France’s Olivier Pain (Yamaha) came in fifth place (10:40).

Monday’s motorcycle race kicked off in Bolivia’s Uyuni saltflats, continued on to Ollague, near the border with Chile, where the competitors made a fuel stop, and concluded in Calama.

Overall, the motorcycle race is led by Coma, with a total time of 32:06:19, followed by Barreda, trailing by 38:08 minutes, Spain’s Jordi Viladoms (KTM), trailing by 1:27:22, France’s Alain Duclos (Sherco), 1:49:09, and Chile’s Jeremias Israel (Speedbrain), 1:52:05.