Antoine Méo Leads Dakar for KTM

Dakar Bikes

Antoine Méo bagged another win for France and his second stage victory after one of the closest battles of the race so far with American Ricky Brabec. After firing off to an early lead on his KTM, Méo was gradually reeled by the impressive Honda rider, who held the virtual lead of the stage for much of the 500km.

Determined to make up time on his podium rivals, though, Méo found a second wind in the final few kilometres to build an advantage of one minute and snatch the win, a result he was happy with. "I went flat-out from the start. I wanted to gain six or seven minutes on the leaders, and I'm happy with what I did today because I pushed to the limit," Meo said at the finish. "It'll hurt my chances if tomorrow's stage is cancelled, but I'll try to salvage something on the way to Fiambalá. Everything's still up in the air."

Antoine Méo is fighting hard for the podium

© Flavien Duhamel/Red Bull Content Pool

There was more excitement on the edge of the top five, as Kevin Benavides dropped the hammer in fourth to beat current race leader Adrien Van Beveren by nearly three minutes and cut his overall lead to just 22 seconds, setting up a thrilling battle between the pair over the final five stages. "Adrien and I have a great relationship. We're rivals on the track and good friends off it. I took time on him today and moved very close, it's quite fun," commented Benavides. "But now, it's gonna be a big fight for the win."

Selected Standings

• 1. Antoine Méo (KTM) 05h 24m 01s
• 2. Ricky Brabec (Honda) +00h 01m 08s
• 3. Toby Price (KTM) +00h 02m 45s
• 6. Matthias Walkner (KTM) +00h 07m 00s
• 10. Laia Sanz (KTM) +00h 14m 15s