Dakar 2024 stage 9

For this ninth day of racing, the riders set off from Ha’il towards Alula for a stage of 435 km. The start of the special was very fast with sandy tracks and it also had some mountains of sand. Navigation becomes complicated when you must guess the tracks rather than following them visually, and riding on rocky plateaus requires both confidence and technique to maintain an ideal pace.

Rui Gonçalves finished 11th overall on the stage and Harith Noah 14th.

Stage 9 Ranking

Rui Gonçalves: P11

Harith Noah: P14

Provisional general classification

Rui Gonçalves: P24

Harith Noah: P13

Rui Gonçalves :
“I felt good from the start, but I made a mistake looking for a crossing point. I went in one direction then the other, I had a really hard time validating it, it made me lose a lot of time. I then had to maintain a good pace until the end, it became hard physically as I worked hard to recover some of the lost time. It was another positive day, I am happy with my feelings on the bike, it worked well, which brought us closer to the top 10 Today.”

Harith Noah :
“It was a strange day. The first part where I navigated alone went well. Then I rode with D. Sanders and S. Svitko. Like many, we Wasted a lot of time trying to find the way.”

Tomorrow, the riders will set off for the tenth stage of the Dakar, from Alula to Alula, a total of 612 km including 371 km of special and 241 km of liaison.

Jordan Curvalle, the Team manager, takes us behind the scenes of the Sherco Factory Rally Team structure and its organization. You can watch the video below !