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2015 Dakar Rally – Stage 6: A Shuffling of Things

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Stage 6 of the 2015 Dakar Rally saw the riders head into Iquique, and while the course was fairly straight-forward, a navigational error at the front of the pack caused a shuffling in the stage’s finishing order.

Though first out of the gate, Marc Coma finished the day 7th, after crashing in the early parts of the stage. He was quickly caught by Joan Barreda, whose strategies seems to be sticking close to Coma at all costs, minimizing the KTM rider’s ability to gain time on his Honda rival.

This left HRC’s Helder Rodrigues who took the stage win, planting another flag for Honda in this year’s Dakar. The Japanese manufacturer is proving to be a serious contender in the Dakar Rally, and could upset KTM’s dominance of the rally raid event.

“I started out from behind, but I caught up with the riders who were opening the road. They were very quick, but I also had the speed to catch them,” said Rodrigues. “I’m pleased with the way it turned out and was very calm until the end. It’s rest-day tomorrow, which we really need, to get the energy back and plan next the second week as well as possible. I want to keep attacking and claw back a bit of time in the overall standings.”

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Racing

Video: Guy Martin’s Passion For Life

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You can’t talk about the Isle of Man TT without talking about Guy Martin. The affable rider can be an enigma at times, both on and off the track.

Immensely popular, Martin is surprisingly mercurial with his fans. Supremely talented on a motorbike, the Lincolnshire man has surprisingly never won an Isle of Man TT race.

Britain’s Channel 4 has put together a great short documentary on Martin, which should start help marinate the juices for this summer’s Isle of Man TT race fortnight.

British A&R readers should be able to click over to an even longer video on what makes Guy Martin tick, while us “colonials” will have to suffice with a seven-minute YouTube clip.

Whichever version you watch, it’s a pretty candid and well done insight into one of the TT’s more mysterious riders. Enjoy!

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Racing

2015 Dakar Rally – Stage 5: Coma Takes First Stage Win

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Marc Coma has finally chalked up his first stage win of the 2015 Dakar Rally, gaining back several minutes from the overall leader Joan Barreda.

With 10 minutes still between the two top riders from HRC and KTM, it seems Barreda is content to manage the gap, as he let Coma lead Stage 5 and followed the Spaniards tracks and navigation decisions in the difficult fesh-fesh minefield that is the Atacama Desert.

“I am happy about the stage win but the fact is that Joan enjoys a significant advantage and we will try to trim it,” said Coma. There is still a lot of race left. The second part (of the rally) is longer with the marathon stages and it will be a fight every day. We are going in the right direction and we will keep fighting.”

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Racing

2015 Dakar Rally – Stage 4: Barreda Answers

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After Yesterday’s fateful round, the 2015 Dakar Rally was back in action today with Stage 4, Chilecito to Copiapo. The stage would lead the riders out of Argentina and into Chile, for the first time this rally raid.

A mixture of sand dunes, rocks, and high elevation, the day was the second longest overall (909km), but featured only a 315km timed special stage.

Answering yesterday’s KTM 1-2 victory, Honda’s Joan Barreda set out to maintain is top spot in The Dakar standings, though would have to contend with KTM’s Marc Coma, who stuck to him like glue once the two were riding together.

While Barreda’s lead over Coma was increased by a couple of minutes, Coma’s spot on the overall time sheets is now second, and well within striking distance of the HRC rider — especially with two marathon stages left to contend with.

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2015 Dakar Rally – Stage 3: KTM Responds

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In response to a difficult Stage 2, Dakar officials shortened Stage 3 of the 2015 Dakar Rally, but the picturesque course was still enough to shake up the standings a bit. Winning the stage was Dakar newcomer, MX3 World Champion Matthias Walkner — the first Austrian rider in The Dakar since the 1990’s.

“I already had a good feeling when I got to the finish because I knew I had a good day. But at the end I was a bit tired and wasn’t concentrating so well and I made some small mistakes,” explained stage-winner Walkner.

“It is an amazing feeling to win the stage and for sure I didn’t expect this. It will be difficult to open the piste tomorrow. Now for the rest of the rally I just want to enjoy every kilometer, to learn and to stay focused on the road book so I don’t make many mistakes.”

A Factory KTM rider, Walkner added some orange to the stage podium, and was joined by KTM’s Marc Coma, who finished second for the day, 40 seconds behind his teammate. Managing the gap though, Honda’s Joan Barreda finished the day third, only a minute and change behind Walkner.

As such, Barreda stays in control of the overall standings, but Coma is within a comfortable 11-minute gap of the HRC rider.

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Racing

2015 Dakar Rally – Stage 2: Thinning the Herd

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Hosting the second longest special stage of the 2015 Dakar Rally (518 miles), Stage 2 between Villa Carlos Paz and San Juan was especially grueling because of the added heat; and as such, The Dakar has already started to separate the top riders.

To that end, the HRC riders find themselves weighed and measured at the top, thus far. Joan Barreda rode to a solid stage win, and finishes the day with over a four-minute interval to his closest competitor.

“In the end we set off with a game-plan to not make any mistakes and arrive safely at the finish-line,” said Barreda. “The result has been amazing. In the first part, Sunderland and Coma pushed really hard and I overtook Paulo to try and stop them running away with the stage.

“In the end, it was more about survival than anything else. We had to measure the pace and keep focused on the navigation as there were some extremely tricky spots, plus another stretch towards the end, that really put a strain on the body,” he continued.

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2015 Dakar Rally – Stage 1: And They’re Off!

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The first stage of the 2015 Dakar Rally started from Buenos Aires this weekend; and as usual, the day was a relatively easy affair that allowed riders to check their machines and get into the groove of what will be a grueling competition.

As such, a 144km liaison ride was made through the Argentinean countryside before the competitors reached the 175km timed “special” stage. Another long (519km) liaison section ended the day, and everyone bivouacked in Villa Carlos Paz.

Because of the short special stage, the riders are packed close on the standing, with less than six minutes separating the Top 20 riders. KTM’s Sam Sunderland drew first blood with the stage win, with teammate Marc Coma 1’12 behind in third.

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Event

Alright Hipsters, You Win This Round…

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The One Show could be best described as equal parts lumberjack initiation party, bad tattoo exhibition, and 12-step program for the “I’m 18 and angry at my father” — it’s just that hipstertastic.

If you look past the Bialetti espresso cans, the very Portlandian motorcycle show brings the interesting premise that if you only had one motorcycle to fullfil your tw0-wheeled needs, what would it look like? The results to that question are as varied as the people who submit their work.

Taking place February 13-15th, in Portland, Oregon, it should be a good time out (we enjoyed last year’s snow-filled event)…especially considering the attached promo video.

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MotoGP

Video: Suzuki’s MotoGP Team Reviews Their 2014 Efforts

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It’s been a busy year for Suzuki Racing, as the Japanese motorcycle company is looking to re-enter the MotoGP World Championship for the 2015 season.

Getting their Suzuki GSX-RR race bike ready, and their racing program on-point, hasn’t been easy for the OEM — even with a fast test rider like Randy de Puniet.

Suzuki recaps their efforts in 2014 with this short video, which shows a behind-the-scenes look at the GSX-RR’s development and Suzuki’s MotoGP preparations.

With Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Viñales set to race next season, many in the GP paddock are anxious to see Suzuki’s return to Grand Prix racing.

The expectations are optimistic, though also realistic…the 2015 will be a development season for sure, but the GSX-RR appears to be a solid platform to build upon.

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Racing

The Biggest Crashes from the 2014 Malaysian Cub Prix

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One of the highlights for me this year was getting to travel to Malaysia, for the Malaysian Grand Prix. A tremendously diverse country, Malaysians come together for many things, but one of the biggest is motorcycle racing.

The Malaysian economy hasn’t quite caught up with the country’s appetite though, so large-displacement machines are more of a rarity than a norm on the city streets.

Instead, you will see Malaysians riding these small-displacement bike that no matter the manufacturer, looks suspciously like the iconic Honda Cub.

Naturally the racing desire conquers all, and these “cubs” are raced, en masse, on Malaysian “race courses” — some of which are more professionally put together than others.

The speeds might not be MotoGP-level, but the riders are going 10/10ths, and the crashes are just as intense. For your cringing pleasure, here are the biggest crashes from the 2014 Malaysian Cub Prix, after the jump.

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