In today’s episode of Things You Never Knew, millionaire motorsport man Fernando Alonso discovers that the planet is in fact entirely held together by zip ties and duct tape.
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And Fernando finishes the Stage. P57 for the stage and 2h34m behind the stage winner drops him all the way down to P48 in the General Standings. But he’s still running.
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It seems the dakar this year is catching a lot of people out this year. The new race is difficult!
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Dakar 2020 - Stage 2 Recap
Bikes
Cars
Red Bull Motorsport’s Dakar Daily Report
Includes a great insert featuring the other “South African” in the race this year - renowned global adventurer and explorer Mike Horn who is navigating on his first Dakar for Dakar bike legend Cyril Depres in a Red Bull SSV.
Today’s Stage 3 is a loop starting and ending in Neom with 427km of racing Special Section.
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Withdrawals after Stage 2 sadly included SA’s Wessel Bosman - 2020 was the 60-year old ex-SA Olympic hurdler’s 4th Dakar attempt, and the 4th that he has had to abandon. 
That leaves just 3 South African flags alongside rider names in the Bike category after Stage 2:
Stuart Gregory, the malkop nut farmer in his 2nd Dakar. “Malkop” because he is attempting the Rally in the Malle Moto class (or the “Original by Motul” class as it’s being called this year) - the true Dakar way, imho. Malle competitors attempt the Dakar without any assistance - mad bastards!
And then our two Dakar Rookie ladies, who are both attempting to become the first African woman to complete the Dakar: Kirsten Landman on her BAS Dakar Racing Team KTM (P85 after Stage 2), and Taye Perry on her Nomad Racing KTM (P86 after Stage 2). The ladies seem to be keeping each other company at the moment, but it might be gloves off to claim that First African Woman to complete the Dakar title closer to the end of the Rally if they’re both still running.
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Stage 3 leaders are finishing the timed section for today.
Here’s the Top 10 cars on the stage:
Papa Sainz adds Dakar Stage Win #33 to his already impressive record! Solid recorvery drive today for Alonso after yesterday’s disaster. And nice to see all 4 of the SA Toyota Gazoo Racing cars in the Stage Top 10. General Rankings are only confirmed later once any penalties are applied, but the 13 mins Sainz put in over Terranova should see the Spaniard take over the P1 position overall.
And the Top 10 in the bikes category:
Great ride by Ricky Brabec today to take the stage by almost 10 minutes. Overnight leader Sam Sunderland had a shocker by contrast and finished almost 40 minutes behind in P16 for the stage. Again, General Classification standings still need to be confirmed, but it’s almost certain that Brabec will take over P1. And with a very healthy time cushion to his rivals.
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The highs and lows of Dakar - one day you are the king, the next you’re chewing gravel. Bad luck for yesterday’s Bots stage winning hero Ross Branch on today’s stage:
He has just finished the stage, almost and hour and a half slower than the winner. Medical checks now I’m sure and then a decision on whether to continue or not.
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Dakar 2020 - Stage 3 Recap
Bikes
Includes helicam shot of Van Beveren’s scary high speed crash - rider is okay.
Cars
Red Bull Motorsport’s Dakar Daily Report
Includes an insert featuring the some of those insane Malle Moto riders that I mentioned yesterday.
Bonus Dakar Portrait Video
Again after mentioning her just yesterday, SA’s tiny female Rookie biker, Taye Perry, was featured in yesterday’s Dakar Portrait. (it’s like I see the future 
)
Dakar 2020 - Stage 4 Neom > Al-`Ula Preview
At 672 km (made up of 219km Liaison and 453 km Special), today’s is a fairly long stage that takes competiors back down the Red Sea coast on a lengthy Liaison before they turn inland and start the timed Special section from Duba.
The route is fairly flat today with 70% over sand and soil, and no dunes.
The stage is already well under way, with most competitors having already left the DSS.
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Dakar 2020 - Stage 4 Recap
Category Leaders
Bikes
Cars
Red Bull Motorsport’s Dakar Daily Report
This episode features the inspirational South African lady rider Kirsten Landman. Amazing comeback story after she came close to death after her horrific accident during the Botswana Desert 1000 Race in 2013.
Bonus Dakar Portrait Video
And a bonus Dakar Portrait clip featuring Mike Horn and Cyril Depres
Dakar 2020 - Stage 5 Preview
Al-`Ula > Ha’im: 564 km - Liaison = 211 km, Special = 353 km
Today’s 564 km Stage 5 (211 km Liaison, 353 km Special) dees the Dakar racers shoot almost straight west into the heart of Saudia Arabia.
Another fairly flat route today, and after yesterday’s rocks and stoney gravel paths, competitors have a lot of dunes to look forward to today!
Racing is well under way this morning, with the lead bikes already well through the halfway mark on the stage.
Big news for the road this morning is that 2017 Dakar winner, and one of the favourites for this year, Sam Sunderland is out. A heavy fall after 187 km of the Special has left the Englishman with back and left shoulder injuries. He fortunately did not lose consciousness and has been airlifted to the medical center already.
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Stage 5 winners have completed the day’s Special.
On the bikes, reigning champion Aussie Toby Price picks up his 2nd stage win of the rally, and moves back up the Overall Ranking. But it’s not quite enough to get him back ahead of American rival Ricky Brabec who finished 4th on the stage, but who retains his Overall lead for the third day running.
In the cars, it’s old man Sainz who also picks up his 2nd stage win and holds onto P1 Overall for the third day in succession. Both Al-Attiyah and Peterhansel lost more time to Carlos Senior today. Probably because this is how well the Spaniard is driving in his efforts to claim his third Dakar title:
Sand, rocks, scrub bushes? No problem for Sainz.
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Dakar 2020 - Stage 5 Recap
Category Leaders
Bikes
Toby Price has won the 5th stage by 1’12 in front of Pablo Quintanilla, improving his position in the general standings. Andrew Short puts a second bike of the official Husqvarna team in the day’s top 3.Ricky Brabec has ridden with control on the fifth stage to only concede 3 minutes to the day’s winner Toby Price, meaning he leads the Australian by 9 minutes in the general standings whilst Kevin Benavides has dropped back to 11 minutes behind. Sam Sunderlands’ crash and exit from the rally clearly the day’s low point.
Cars
Very tight stage for the Top 3 cars, with Al-Attiyah and Sainz swapping the stage lead throughout, with Peterhansel always within 5 minutes. Some great helicam visuals of the 3 of them racing close together in this clip. Check out the three of them going sideaways down the dunes!
Red Bull Motorsport’s Dakar Daily Report
https://www.redbull.com/za-en/events/dakar-rally-saudi-arabia-2020/live/stage-5-dakar-rally-2020
Features a quick interview with Stage 2 biker winner Botswana’s Okavango bush pilot Ross Branch after his accident on the next stage. He had a good day today, riding in a group of 5 with the race leaders.
Bonus Dakar Epic Story Video
Today’s bonus video is the first Dakar Epic Story for 2020 - Gustavo Gugelmin talks about how he got his SSV with a broken steering column to the end of Stage 1 with the help of a screwdriver and a couple of spanners - epic stuff!
Dakar 2020 - Stage 6 Preview
Ha’il > Riyadh: Total=830 km / Liaison=353 km & Special=477 km
Today’s Stage 6 takes competitors South through central Saudia Arabia to the capital Riyahd. The longest stage of the rally so far brings the race to the halfway point and the welcome relief of Saturday’s Rest Day in Riyadh.
The route profile is another flat run with 90% over sand and dunes. It’s going to be a dusty, dirty day.
The stage is underway with most of the bikes and quads started and a majority of the 4-wheelers on the route as well…
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Saudi Arabia is a desert nation, right? Like frikken hot all the time desert, right?
Except when it snows that is…
This was near the start of the special stage this morning. 
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that suspension works so hard… such a beautiful thing to watch. Should be on r/oddlysatisfying
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Huge day for American Ricky Brabec on the Honda. Takes his 2nd stage win. Meanwhile, both KTM Factory riders Toby Price and Luciano Benavides have poor days by comparison. Brabec extends his lead in the General Standings to over 20 minutes. Price slips one position down to P3, while Benavides drops from P3 yesterday to P7 today.
Meanwhile, in the cars Peterhansel, Al-Attiyah and Sainz have pretty much picked up from where they left off yesterday… the three have remained close together for most of the stage, and are swapping stage honours back and forth between themselves. They are again separated by less than 3 minutes through the 425 km checkpoint, with just about 50 km still to go on the stage.
Alonso is also having a reasonable run today (so far 
) and is currently 5th on the stage through the 371 km checkpoint.
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Carlos Sainz in the dunes on today’s stage:
Minificent!
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Just noticed that Fernando’s Toyota has a Gauteng Province licence plate.
Think someone needs to clone it and spend a couple of days messing with the eToll cameras
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Sad news from today’s Dakar 2020 Stage 7, and another stark reminder of the inherent dangers of motorsport:
12:20 Portuguese rider Paulo Gonçalves passed away
Paulo Gonçalves, racing on motorbike no. 8, has passed away from a fall sustained 276 kilometres into today’s special. The organisers received an alert at 10:08 and dispatched a medical helicopter that reached the biker at 10:16 and found him unconscious after going into cardiac arrest. Following resuscitation efforts in situ, the competitor was taken by helicopter to Layla Hospital, where he was sadly pronounced dead.
40-year-old Paulo Gonçalves was taking part in his 13th Dakar. He made his debut in 2006 and had finished four times in the top 10, including an impressive performance as runner-up to Marc Coma in 2015. Paulo Gonçalves, the 2013 cross-country rallies world champion, was sitting in 46th place overall after stage 6 of the 2020 Dakar.
The entire Dakar caravan would like to extend its sincere condolences to his friends and family.
RIP 
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Provisional ranking in the Cars after Stage 7 shows how dominant Mini and Toyota are again this year.
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Going to struggle to do Dakar recaps and stage previews in the morning for the 2nd half of the rally this week, so y’all will have to make do with evening summaries instead. This means the Bike and Car video summaries may only get added in a little later.
Dakar 2020 - Stage 8 Recap
Wadi Al Dawasir > Wadi Al Dawasir: Total=716 km / Liaison=239 km & Special=477 km
Today’s Stage 8 was the second “loop” stage on this year’s Dakar. In the absence of the bikes opening the way following the cancellation of their stage in homage to Paulo Gonçalves, the usual leading lights of the car category had a difficult time with navigation. This allowed new names to come to the fore in the classification of the stage, which was won by a devilishly fast amateur driver, Mathieu Serradori.
Wadi, the valley in Arabic, is a fairly good way to describe the stage in which the cars, SSVs and trucks took part today. The crews did not get to see much relief, apart from around one hundred kilometres on the Wajid plateau where several impressive canyons provided variation from the pleasure of driving among the dunes.
Indeed, for most of the stage, all that changed was the shades of the sand for the competitors on the Dakar: ochre, orange, mustard yellow or light beige depending on their position in relation to the sun. Following a fast, straight portion over the first fifty kilometres, they had to overcome a sequence of small chains of dunes before reaching the finishing line. In this domain, the usual specialists were not troubled.
Category Leaders
Bikes
As a mark of respect for Paulo Goncalves, and to allow the competitors time to mourn the tragic loss of a Dakar legend, Stage 8 was entirely cancelled for the Bike and Quad riders. The standings after the end of Stage 7 will hold and be carried forward to tomorrow.
Cars
In addition to an amateur taking stage honours today, Rookie Fernando Alonso secured his best stage finish of the Dakar so far, with a brilliant P2 drive, just 4 minutes off his maiden stage win. He’s got 4 more racing stages to do that - I think he may still do it.
Here’s the Top 5 finishers on today’s stage.
Notice that none of the Top 3 Overall are on that list. Peterhansel ended the stage P9 (+13m), Al-Attiyah was P11 (+16m) with rally leader Sainz in P15 (+19m).
And after his good performance today, Alonso has managed to claw his way back up the Overall Standings and now lies in P13. If continues to drive as he has since the disastorous Stage 2, he will finish his first Dakar in the Top 10, I’m sure of it.
Red Bull Motorsport’s Dakar Daily Report
Dakar Portrait
Today’s Dakar Portrait video introduces Saudi female (circuit) racers to the Dakar Rally and to dune driving.
Dakar 2020 - Stage 9 Preview
Tomorrow’s Stage 9 is another long one. From Wadi Al Dawasir to Haradh, competitors will travel almost 900 km on the day (Liaison > 476 km and Special > 410 km).
With this long stage, the Dakar prepares to enter the “Empty Quarter”. The main factor will be driving precision, this time with mainly hard ground and a number of rough portions for those who are not careful enough. On reaching Haradh, built around oil and agriculture, the rally enters a new phase.
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