Sixth stage of the 2013 Dakar: Arica - Calama

Today the 6th stage of the 2013 Dakar will be run, the first one to be held entirely in Chile, so the convoy of the toughest rally in the world enters the second country it covers during this extreme adventure in South America.

Specifically, on this sixth day we will have a liaison of 313 kilometres and a special stage of 454 kilometres, so it will be a long day, a return to the desert at its finest, we are heading to Atacama, where the dunes and the sand will be the main protagonists alongside the competitors.

Although on this stage we will have two timing activation zones, meaning the stopwatch will start at two different points, where we will see plenty of action and where the dunes and fesh-fesh may be the main rivals of all the competitors. The fine sand is going to cause a lot of problems on this very long stage. It will not be easy to start this day, since it is a morning start for the riders, especially for those who finished stage 5 yesterday with problems and arrived late at the camp, but they have to keep fighting at every moment and keep looking towards the next dune.

On this stage we arrive with the French riders in great form, especially Pain, the current leader, and Casteu, both are first in the provisional overall standings of the 2013 Dakar, followed by Despres, another from the French homeland. Without a doubt, they are waging a fierce battle with their Yamaha and KTM machines respectively. For our part, the best of ours is Jordi Viladoms in 5th position.

Today is a long stage, we will see what they can do and whether some of ours who had problems yesterday can recover ground, it is time to go all out.

Photo | Dakar official