The Jalapao Desert, situated in the core of Tocantins state, is an arid region with big formations. And those characteristics made some accidents today in the Rally dos Sertoes during its seventh - and the longest - stage of the competition's 21st edition. Besides the hard time every rider had during the 499 kilometers, they still had to cope with temperatures close to 40 degrees Celsius. Riders got to the bivouac exhausted, and Marc Coma (KTM) started climbing positions all over again. From seventh overall yesterday due to a wheel problem, the Spaniard is now third.Now former leader, Yamaha Cyril Despres had a bad day, finishing only sixth, losing the lead to Speedbrain rider Paulo Gonçalves, second in this Thursday's stage. Coma remembered the tiring day everyone had. "A really long day, with 200 very hard kilometers in the beginning, but I could go forward, set my pace and mission accomplished. Despite not having a good day yesterday, today I managed to ride well and get some more positions. It was very hot, I had to drink too much water and I am really tired", said Coma.New leader Gonçalves reached what he wished for today. "A really tough stage, difficult even to navigate. I saw some riders missing waypoints and I chose to follow what was on the roadbook, because I was very easy to make a mistake. My main goal was to reduce the gap Cyril had over me, and he did not have a good day", said the Portuguese.The Frenchman was thirsty after the end of the stage. And not happy. "For me it was the worst day of the Sertoes. I lost three minutes looking for a waypoint and after refueling there was a barbed wire fence which I hit with the bike and fell over it. After this I had to concentrate to find a good pace", he resumed.QuadsA big turnover in quads today. After a penalty on Rafal Sonik, who was dominating the rally winning all the stages until then, he started the Thursday three hours behind the leaders for changing a flat tire during the marathon stage, falling back to fifth position and putting Brazilian Marcelo Medeiros at the front. But today was Robert Nahas day after a breathtaking battle with the 2012 Sertoes champion and he got to the lead."It was a good and fair battle between me and Marcelo (Medeiros). We were passing each other all the time for a long stretch. With a few kilometers to go, he got a puncture and had to stop and change the tire, but still he finished the stage only a few minutes behind me. Rafal is really fast and we know he is going to be even faster after he got a three-hour penalty and sooner or later he would have some trouble. Today he got an accident and fortunately it was nothing serious, so he keeps in pushing us to the limit too. This is one of the best Sertoes of all time in quads. The battle for the lead is wide open", said Brazilian Robert Nahas.Tomorrow everyone will face another long day, with a total of 666 kilometers, half liaisons, half stage, between Palmas and Minacu, back into Goia¡s state.Communication FGCom - www.fgcom.com.br -
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