Dakar 2015
Friday January 9
Stage 6: Antofagasta – Iquique
Road Section: 322 km – Special: 69 km – Neutralisatión: 22 km – Special: 186 km – Road Section: 48 km – Total: 688 km
The sixth stage of the Dakar 2015 arrives to Iquique, city located in the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Like every year, the bivouac is located at the skirts of the big downhill of the dunes but yesterday, the competitors arrived through a different path and were received by the public at the podium installed downtown before going to the bivouac.
The special was again hard, and a big part of it was on fesh fesh and dunes at the end. Willy had a good start and was going to be placed among the top 40… but when the bikes path was split from the cars, at km 150, Willy realized that his road book was not right for cars…
“I am alone (in solo), and I use a bike boad book like the bike riders, explains the Polaris RZR 1000XT+30. All of a sudden I found myself alone in tracks with no fesh fesh and only bike traces. I already covered 19 km when I realized that there was a mistake. I had a bike road book and not the car one! So I did a U-turn and went back and followed traces stopping every once in a while to verify if I was going in the right direction and treating myself like an idiot for the rest of the special stage. I lost more than one hour and I was disappointed because I would have made a good time.
At the bivouac, I went to speak to the organization and they have me back 30 minutes to share responsibility. They should have not made the mistake and I should have checked it.
I start then 53, in front of Jes, for the marathon stage in Bolivia.”