Robbie Wallace showed no after-effects of his crash on Wednesday when he contested today’s sixth stage of the 2025 Dakar Rally as he brought the X Raids Experience TCC Plant-sponsored 450cc KTM home in a superb 52nd place overall.
Facing a daunting 800km route (500 miles) of which over 600km (375 miles) were competitive on the leg from Ha’il to Al Duwadimi in Saudi Arabia, the rider from Northallerton, North Yorkshire set about making up for the penalties incurred for missing the stages following his accident.
At the end of the mammoth leg, which started and finished in darkness and saw the 27-year-old electrical engineer in the saddle for over 12 hours, he has improved to 96th overall from his morning starting position of 102nd and now lies 82nd in the Rally2 class and 23rd Rookie.
Robbie Wallace: “It was good to get back in the saddle after the crash and both me and the bike felt fine. It was another exhausting day, and I was on the bike for over 12 hours, but I didn’t have too many problems. The scariest thing about it was finishing the stage in the dark where I had to ride the last 50km in the pitch black, all of which was in the sand dunes. I teamed up with the Colombian lad, Francisco Alvarez, and between us, we shared the navigation otherwise we both may have ended up spending the night in the desert! Seeing a few of the top riders go out reminds me just how tough this event is, so I’m just glad to be still in it.”
Tomorrow sees a circular leg starting and finishing in the central location of Al Duwadimi and comprises a total distance of 719km (446 miles) of which the organisers have reduced the competitive section slightly to accommodate for a slightly later start. The route will be a mixture of fast and slow terrain, some of the hardest navigation on the event so far and culminating mountainous section at the end.
Results after Stage 6 –Ha’il to Al Duwadimi
Position on Stage: 52nd
Overall Position: 96th
Rally2 Position: 82nd
Rookie Position: 23rd
Overall Time: 118h 30′ 20”
Total Penalties: 58h 05’ 00”
Time Behind Leader: 83h 11′ 31”
Distance Covered: 4,272 km
Distance To Go: 3,346 km
SAND SNIPPETS
- The leader since the prologue, Daniel Sanders (KTM), will spend another night at the top of the Dakar standings. However, the Australian has lost some ground to his rivals today as Tosha Schareina (Honda) has reduced the gap to 11 minutes 46 seconds, while Adrien Van Beveren (Honda) has closed it to 19 minutes and 11 seconds in third. Today’s stage winner, Ricky Brabec (Honda) is fourth, now 23 minutes and 18 seconds behind Sanders.
- A number of high-profile riders retired from the event today, including 2024 World Rally-Raid Champion, Ross Branch (Hero), who crashed at the 48 km mark. KTM riders Bradley Cox, who fell within sight of the start, and Kevin Benavides, who succumbed to a previous injury, have also gone out.
- The helicopters deployed for race safety have been called into action many times today, so they will have to remain on the course this evening. As a result, the start of stage 7 will be delayed a little to provide enough time for the helicopters to reach their positions tomorrow morning.
- From SS7 onwards, the routes for the cars and bikes now take a different course so the car drivers will not have the tracks laid by the bikes to follow for the first time since the start!
Pictures attached courtesy of EdoPhoto and Robbie Wallace, higher resolution versions and a selection of others are available upon request.
More updates as the event progresses and further details at www.dakar.com.
Notes to Editors
The 47th edition of the Dakar will see around 140 motorcycle competitors, as well as hundreds of car, buggy and truck drivers from all over the world converge on Bisha in the south west of Saudi Arabia starting with technical checks and administration on January 1st/2nd 2025 and then the Prologue on January 3rd 2025 before the competition starts in earnest the following day. There then follows a mighty 950km stage over two days on varied terrain, with competitors required to camp out overnight in the desert in a bivouac. At least five stages of the 2025 Dakar will take place on separate courses for safety purposes to reduce the danger of cars and trucks overtaking bikes, and another feature of the 2025 event is riders will have to service their own bikes for up to 800km on a couple of days. After 14 days incorporating 12 stages, Shubaytah, in the eastern part of the country and near the Abu Dhabi border, will welcome the weary finishers.
ENDS
