On an interesting day in bikes where overall race leader Sam Sunderland stopped 38 km into the new stage route for Stage 7, La Paz to Uyuni, American Ricky Brabec has captured his first stage win in this year’s Dakar Rally.
The next round of Dakar Rally coverage on NBCSN is at 6:30 p.m. ET Monday night.
Brabec, on his No. 9 Monster Energy Honda Team Honda, closed to 18 seconds of in-stage leader Paolo Goncalves at the final update prior to the checkered flag to then ending ahead of him by one minute, 44 seconds by the end of the stage.
It marks Brabec’s first stage win and will see him climb the overall ranks from 21st, where he was at the halfway point at Stage 6. Stage 6 was cancelled outright due to poor weather. His best finish this Dakar was second on the opening stage.
Goncalves was second, and Sunderland recovered to third in the stage.
🏁 STAGE 7 - BIKES 🏁
— DAKAR RALLY (@dakar) January 9, 2017
1- @rickyB357 🇺🇸
2- @GoncalvesSpeedy 🇵🇹 (+1'44)
3- @Sundersam 🇬🇧 (+4'43")
6th stage. 6th different winner. #Dakar2017 pic.twitter.com/7xg9UDhym9
BIKES 🏍 - @rickyB357 couldn't quite believe he had won the stage. / Ricky Brabec no podía creer que había ganado la etapa. #Dakar2017 pic.twitter.com/oGvXLBAaJG
— DAKAR RALLY (@dakar) January 9, 2017
More will follow from Brabec’s day later on. Meanwhile a profile piece on Brabec from NBCSN’s day one coverage, in his second Dakar, is linked below.