Cyril Despres dealt a cruel blow to his rivals today by winning the 2012 Dakar's third stage, 13 minutes clear of his chief opponent and overnight leader Marc Coma. David Casteu (Yamaha/Michelin) also produced a strong run with the new front Michelin Desert Race tire.

The drive from San Rafael to Mendoza, capital of the province of the same name, took us along Ruta 43. For the first 110km, the narrow asphalt strip crossed a semi-desert plateau with the snowy peaks of the Andes Mountains visible in the distance.

We then switched from Ruta 43 to Ruta 40 which runs some 100km along a valley bottom parallel to the Cordillera. The route is lined with poplar trees and giant weeping willows and passes through San Carlos, Tunuyan and Anchoris before reaching Mendoza.

On the outskirts of the city, competitors took a left turn towards the mountains along the legendary Ruta 7, which links Buenos Aires with Santiago de Chile. The start of the week's third stage was a little further along this road.

Today's competitive distance for the Dakar's bikers was 270km, which was 62km more than the menu faced by their four-wheeled counterparts. The mountainous terrain was rough and narrow and, after 180km of this punishment, the stage was nearly over for the car competitors as the trail began its climb to an altitude of 3,500 metres, before the dramatic final 50km run back to San Juan via an extremely narrow track with awesome precipices to the side…

However, the day's outcome was practically settled before this final 'enduro'-like section, since Spain's Marc Coma went the wrong way at a junction at Km163 and completed some eight kilometres before realising he had made a mistake. He eventually found his way back onto the correct route, but he dropped some 10 minutes to his French rival Cyril Despres in the process.

The Frenchman went on to claim the stage win by a margin of 8m37s over Verhoeven (Sherco/Michelin), and 8m39s over Paulo Goncalves (Husqvarna/Michelin). David Casteu profited from the day to climb to third place overall thanks to a strong run on his Yamaha which was equipped with the new Michelin Desert Race which is currently at the development stage. Chaleco Lopez lost time when he got stuck in sand early on, while Polish KTM rider Grzygonski suffered an engine failure.

Leg 3 - positions:
1, Despres (KTM). 2, Verhoeven (Sherco). 3, Goncalves (Husqvarna) Etc.


Provisional overall positions:
1, Despres (KTM). 2, Coma (KTM). 3, Casteu (Yamaha) Etc.

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