Ruben Faria has won the stage 6 special, ahead of his countryman Helder Rodrigues. In the battle for the top of the general standings, the minute regained by Despres brings him to within 8’48” of Marc Coma. The leader at the rest day now has a reduced advantage, in light of the dense programme of sand that awaits the bikers after Arica. The issue of the other places on the podium is also far from settled, because “Chaleco” Lopez, still 3rd, lost a significant amount of his lead over his pursuers.
Summary stage 6 - 2011/01/07
Helder Rodrigues (4th) is only 5 minutes behind, and Faria is almost as threatening, a little more than 7 minutes behind. Such concerns are now very far off for David Casteu, who lost more than five hours to his rivals in the previous day’s stage. Now his only hope is to put his Sherco in the limelight by grabbing stage victories.
Mathematically, Alejandro Patronelli has a good reason to rejoice on arrival at the end of the stage in Arica, where he finished with a time that sits him comfortably on top of the quad general standings. However, the lead of 16’31” over Thomas Maffei could be whittled down by a penalty, since the older Patronelli brother slowed down too late on arriving in a restricted speed zone. As a result, his day’s hard work is under the threat of being ruined by this sanction.
via Dakar
