VIDEO Štefan Svitko thought of the worst after a hard fall: I said to myself that Dakar is ending for me! – Športky.sk

HA’IL – Slovak motorcycle rider Štefan Svitko took 11th place in Sunday’s 1st stage of the 44th Dakar Rally. The Slovnaft Rally Team competitor achieved a time of 5:07:16 on the 333 km long timed section, he lost more than 17 minutes to the victorious Daniel Sanders from Australia. Pablo Quintanilla from Chile finished second, and Matthias Walkner was third.

The mechanic will have something to do

“The first stage on the Dakar was very good for me at the beginning. I was doing well, I kept a good pace. But at the 250th km I had a pretty bad fall, where I damaged the motorcycle, I also lay a little on the ground. When I saw broken devices on the ground, in the first minute I thought that the Dakar was coming to an end, but after a while I somehow put it together and put it together, I reached the finish line of the last 80 km. “The mechanic will put it together by tomorrow, he has faith to do. I’m very happy to be able to continue tomorrow.” Svitko stated on his official Facebook profile.

Svitko finished 32nd in Saturday’s prologue, but moved significantly forward on Sunday. He has moved up ten places in the overall standings and has a loss of more than 28 minutes to leader Sanders. The marathon stage was supposed to be on the program on Monday, but due to the floods, the organizers included a normal special stage.

• The author: © List
• VIDEO: Facebook Štefan Svitko fanclub
• Source: TASR