Stage 5 victory for Street
Stage 5 of Dakar 2009 between Neuquen and San Rafael was once again a matter of tyres with Marc Coma, race leader, and Cyril Despres, defending bike champion, both suffering trouble with their tubes.
However Jonah Street, American rider, did not have any such problems and ended up with his very first victory on a Dakar special stage.
After starting third in the early hours of the morning, Street once again demonstrated a flawless and steady ride, being the best to handle the first true sand dunes of the race.
"Obviously, I worked a lot to get this. I had been dreaming of a stage victory for so long. It's really special," Street said.
"I did some pretty good navigating. I was not the fastest because my bike is so much slower than the ones of the manufacturers' riders. But I found the right path and this is what the Dakar is all about.
"I am not thinking about the general standings. I just want to go on driving at my own pace and taking care of my bike as good as I can to get to the finish of the raid."
Street, who has been four times in the top ten over the first five stages, managed to preserve his tyres and keep up the pace with the best in the race.
Frans Verhoeven finished second on the stage, five minutes and 53 seconds behind Street, while Chilean Francisco Lopez was third, 7:34 behind.
Meanwhile Coma, winner of the 2006 Dakar, ran flat after 45kms which forced him to stop for a good 20 minutes.
This was great news for Despres, but the curse of the tyre tubes hit the title holder again, and he took an emergency pit stop.
In the general standings, Coma, who finished Stage 5 in 7th position, lost ground and now leads by 27 minutes overall.
"There were quite a lot of sand dunes and rocks today and a lot of kilometres too," said Coma.
"I fell at the 81st kilometre, and then I drove slow the rest of the day. What mattered for me was to get to the stage finish with no other trouble, and I made it."
David Fretigne, third on Stage 5, also closed in on Coma and is now 39 minutes behind.
