ABU DHABI DESERT CHALLENGE
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Stage 3: Qasr Al Sarab – Qasr Al Sarab
Road connection: 88.05 km – Special stage: 256.40 km– Road connection 27.57 km – Total: 372.02 km
It was more than 40 degrees in the shadow when the two RZR Polaris Xtremeplus arrived to the overheated bivouac of Qasr Al Sarab. The special stage, of more than 250 km was, of course, on the sand, crossed a magnificent ocean of dunes. For the Xtremeplus Polaris Factory team competitors, learning was awarded with the 22 and 23 places in the stage ranking, and 18 and 19 in the overall rank.
Alle and Pietro Fogliani N°348 – 22nd of today´s stage and 18th overall. “It was awesome, and everything worked well,” said Alle at the bivouac. “We saw a number of cars trapped in the sand and in places where there was not many options cross. But, because the RZR makes crossing easy, we were able to keep going. The sand became softer with the high temperature so we had to stay much focused. At a moment, we followed a lonely trace that took us out of the race track. I don´t know who was that “opening car” but it passed through amazing places. When we realized we were getting far from the race track, we turn and went back to the traces.”
Jes Munk / Sébastien Delaunay n°347 – 23 of today´s stage and 19th overall: “Today, we did not have to change the belt… but I made a mistake and we lost 20 minutes. It´s sad because we were doing all right. I keep learning and I have learned a lot crossing the dunes. But I still make mistakes that have cost me a puncture because I hit hard after a downhill path. Slowly I am learning how to drive these 4 wheels. It´s just sad that we do not have 15 or 20 km/h more in the straight lines…”
Tomorrow, the fourth stage is the fourth loop of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge. This time, it will be 378 km long.