A short but fast stage

Dakar 2015

 

Sunday, January 4

 

Stage 1: Buenos Aires – Villa Carlos Paz

 

Road connection: 144 km – Selective Section: 170 km – Road connection: 519 km – Total: 833 km

 

 

 

The Dakar leaves Buenos Aires early on Sunday morning to arrive to Villa Carlos Paz, 800 km from the Capital. As everyone knows, you must leave the dry pampa area and the surrounds of the Argentinean Capital to find interesting tracks. It was no surprise for the competitors, the first selective section was short, 175 km, composed by straight lines and right angle turns in the middle of the fields. The high temperatures that were giving us a break have now returned.

 

For Willy Alcaraz, triple champion of the T3 class, this first stage was not quite interesting, but amusing. “I had fun with the Polaris 1000XT+30 in this flat tracks, quite fast for our top speed. There were lots of dust and some water and mud pools due to the rain of the past days. Unfortunately, I lost 10 minutes; I had to cover 50 kilometers at a speed of 90 km/h due to the speed variator.”

 

Tomorrow, things will be more serious, with the second stage of 500 kilometers that will take competitors to Chilecito.