The much-feared stage 2 (“stage 48 hours flat”) awaited the Dakar competitors this Sunday, January 5. Tested and approved last year, the format has been renewed.
The crews had to advance until 5 p.m., then reach one of the six makeshift camps set up along the route. Deprived of mechanical assistance, they had to find only the bare minimum: something to warm up (down), eat (ration) and rest (tent).
An exercise in which Xavier de Soultrait won in SSV last year. He could once again be one of the big winners at this key moment in 2025.
His adversaries are drifting
Impeccable during the first part of the special, 967 kilometers long, the Nivernais managed to reach bivouac D. Only his American teammate Brock Heger did the same in SSV.
Slower, the others were stopped at bivouacs A, B and C. De Soultrait thus went to sleep in provisional second place in the stage, 4’01” behind the other Polaris. But above all he is in the process of to carry out a huge operation in the general classification Victims of accidents, mechanical problems or simply errors, several of his direct competitors for victory lost big.
Precious minutes saved
The Chilean Francisco Lopez, who was his runner-up before the start, is now almost 2 hours behind. Same thing for the Argentinian Jeremias Gonzalez and the Swiss Jérôme de Sadeleer, second two minutes behind Nivernais last year.
De Soultrait is thus virtually leader of the general classification of the category by 8’39” ahead of Heger. At the last score, the third – the Portuguese Alexandre Pinto – is… 45 minutes away!
48 hour format requires that the competitors were not reachable this Sunday. The smile displayed in the photos received by the editorial staff, however, leaves little room for doubt: Xavier de Soultrait has understood that he is hitting hard in this 2025 edition.
359 kilometers separate him from the arrival in Bisha, where he is expected this Monday, January 6 at the end of the morning. If he maintains his pace, he will assert himself as the favorite for his own succession.
