The 2018 Dakar is over and KTM took their 18th win in a row thanks to Matthias Walkner’s excellent riding – and his ability to navigate correctly. A few of the top guys crashed out, but one of the most significant moments of the entire race was back in Stage 10. At the beginning of the stage, the top seven riders were all within 10 minutes of each other. After the mid-stage break, all but two of the top guys got lost at a river bed crossing. Of those two, one guy (Adrien van Beveren) crashed out just 3 km (out of 373) from the finish. Walkner had himself a 39 minute, 42 second lead at the end of the day, and he struck the right balance of maintaining his lead and riding safe enough to win the overall race with a lead of 16 minutes and 53 seconds. The Dakar organization just put out a 5-minute “Best of: Bikes” video and some of the footage is awe-inspiring.
Honda placed second but KTM got the other 4 of the top 5 spots. Toby Price (as featured in this video intermission from a few days ago) placed 3rd.
The top 5 standings:
1. Matthias Walkner (Austria) – KTM 450 Rally Replica: 43:06:01
2. Kevin Benavides (Argentina) – Honda CRF450 Rally: +00:16:53
3. Toby Price (Australia) – KTM 450 Rally Replica: +00:23:01
4. Antoine Meo (France) – KTM 450 Rally Replica: +00:47:28
5. Gerard Farres Guell (Spain) – KTM 450 Rally Replica: +01:01:04
There are also “Best Of” videos for cars, trucks, and the craziest people out there, the quads: