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STAGE 3 : 525 km
LIAISON : starting bivouac : 0 km
SPECIAL STAGE : TAGOUNITE / ICHT : 433 km
LIAISON : ICHT / ASSA : 92 km
As usual on the AFRICA ECO RACE®, the start of the special stage will take place from the bivouac. The track will be good and sandy up to a magnificent canyon that will lead to large, often rocky plains that will be crossed to reach the Chegaga Erg. A section will be 100% sand rather tough during 25 km where it will be necessary to check the pressures in order to not lose too much time. At the exit of the dunes, competitors will find Lake Iriki which is definitely no longer an autodrome. Then the navigation will be easy until the end of the stage since the vehicles will evolve on a large track bordered by cairns, in order to mark the track which goes along the Algerian border. A route along military posts rather tiring for the pilots because of the constant changes of rhythm imposed by the irregular configuration of the ground. Mechanics and men should therefore be well tested at the finish in Icht. But there will still be 92 km of liaison to join the bivouac of Assa.
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 4th
TAGOUNITE / ASSA
Stage : 525km
Start at the bivouac
Leg TAGOUNITE / ICHT : 433 km
Liaison ICHT / ASSA : 92 km
LIKE ON THE FIRST DAY !
This third stage of the 2017 AFRICA ECO RACE® was one of the longest of this edition with all the difficulties one can encounter on the African Cross-Country Rallies. Above all, it featured the first real dune portions. Despite this, the leaders of the start of the race did not flinch. On the other side, they took their supremacy and they were exactly the same winners as the first day with Gev SELLA in the bikes category, Vladimir VASILYEV in Auto category and Andrey KARGINOV in the Truck category.
SELLA BEATS CECI
This is what happened today on the 3rd special stage long of 433 km between Tagounite and Icht. Indeed, Gev SELLA, the 18 year old rider who is doing his first Great offroad Rally, beat his opponents on a selective sector that was yet a big piece in terms of Piloting and navigation. It was necessary to see the expression of Pal Anders ULLEVASETER, the two time winner of the event at the finish: I am 50 years old but today, with what this kid just realized, I took 20 years more. I had no particular problems and he took me over 20 minutes. It is incredible because I see his marks and on the jumps for example, I have to admit he goes further than what I can do. His trajectories are clean and he makes no mistakes in terms of navigation and It will be hard to fight with him. " The Norwegian ranks 2nd at 21.07, ahead of Harite GABARI, who is increasingly comfortable as the Rally descends to the south from where he is originally. On the other hand, a big disappointment today for Paolo CECI whose HONDA Africa Twin faced fuel problems in the dunes. While he was forcing to come back, the Italian had to drop rhythm on the end of the special stage to save the bib foam of his rear tire. As a results, more than 50 minutes lost and a 4th place of the day. In 5th place, we find the Russian Dmitry AGOSHKOV, rather regular since the start. Note the good return of Guillaume MARTENS who ranks 6th and who shows that he is the man for long stages.
Overall, Gev SELLA took the command of the operations with a comfortable advance since he is in front Paolo CECI by 51.05 while Pal Anders ULLELVASETER is 3rd at now 1:23.28. In other words, the Norwegian has no more margin for error. A word on the only quad of the race. After suffering a fuel failure, Aleksandr MAKSIMOV finished 18th today but is in 12th position overall for the moment.
VASILEV IS NOT HOLDING BACK
After a third victory in three days, Vladimir VASILYEV showed once again today that he is here to win and nothing else. The stage was in fact better suited for buggies. But nothing stopped the Russian to remain in front regardless of Thierry MAGNALDI who tried his hardest to keep in touch with the Russian. He was was so close that he finished the stage in second position with his 2WD Buggy at only 3'16''. Another outstanding performance came from the LCR30 Buggy driven by Patrick SIREYJOL who finishes only 5'49'' from the leader. Pascal THOMASSE also managed a very good stage behind the wheel of his OPTIMUS Buggy and finished in 4th place 13'17'' behind the leader of the stage and in front of the very impressive FORD Raptor driven by the Kazakh driver Andrey CHEREDNIKOV, who finishes with an overall gap of 27'32''. After his problems yesterday, Mathieu SERRADORI got back into his rhythm and ends up 7th just behind Dominique HOUSIEUX who is still doing a good job. The big loser of the day is Jean Antoine SABATIER who lost 2 places in the overall ranking and a total of 45'.
In the T2 category, the production car category, the current champion Marat ABYKAYEV finished first of the category ranking with his Toyota. In the overall rankings he is 25th and leading the category. This year on the AFRICA ECO RACE® we also have some T3 competitors with their SSV and so far Fédéric PITOUT is leading with his POLARIS putting him on the top step of the category and 28TH in the overall ranking and todays stage in the 28th.
THAT MAKES THREE FOR KARIGOV
In the truck category, Andrey KARGINOV in his KAMAZ avec the rest of the field are fighting closely with the my of the ars. Andrey won his third stage in as many days and furthermore he finishes 4th in the car/truck ranking. This has comforted his leader of the category and his 3rd place in the general ranking. Behind the rest the KAMAZ we find the two Tatras with a very close duel in between Jaroslav VALTR and Tomas TOMACEK. As we all know Tomas TOMACEK has already won the rally 3 times and he knows that indeed he is not currently leading and that the rally is very long.
Thursday January 5, 2017 the rally is heading south, to go from ASSA to Remz El Quebir after z stage of 409km with no liaisons. This should be the best stage of this year from a driving point of view.
Rankings
BIKES
SS3
1 G. Sella (AFS/KTM) en 4h54.39 ; 2 P.A. Ullevalseter (Nor/KTM) at 21.07 ; 3 H. Gabari (Mar/KTM) at 36.41 ; 4 P. Ceci (Ita/Honda) at 52.54 ; 5 D. Agoshkov (Rus/KTM) at 1h01.01; 6 G. Martens (Hol/KTM) at 1h04.05 ; 7 M. Benko (SLQ /KTM) at 1h04.51 ; 8 S. Pelloni (Ita/Yamaha) at 1h06.47 ; 9 J. Zatko (Slo/KTM) at 1h11.29 ; 10 B. Young (Aus/KTM) at 1h18.20
Overall
1 G. Sella (AFS/KTM) en 10.53 ; 2 P. Ceci (Ita/Honda) at 51.51 ; 3 P.A. Ullevalseter (Nor/KTM) at 1h07.43 ; 4 H. Gabari (Mar/KTM) at 1h23.28 ; 5 D. Agoshkov (Rus/KTM) at 2h13.10 ; 6 M. Benko (SLQ /KTM) at 2h26.21 ; 7 J. Zatko (Slo/KTM) at 2h35.02 ;
8 S. Pelloni (Ita/Yamaha) at 2h36.14 ; 9 G. Martens (Hol/KTM) at 2h49.48 ; 10 H. Rahm (Sue/KTM) at 3h03.12
CARS / TRUCKS
SS3
1 V. Vasilyev - K. Zhiltsov (Rus/Mini) en 4h17.30 ; 2 T. Magnaldi - F.Borsotto (Fra/Buggy 2WD) at 3.16 ; 3 P. Sireyjol - FX. Beguin (Fra-Bel/Buggy LCR 30) at 5.49 ; 4 A. Karginov - A. Mokeev - D. Nikitin (Rus/Kamaz) at 10.47 ; 5 P. Thomasse - P. Larroque (Fra/Buggy Optimus) at 13.17 ; 6 A. Cherednikov - D. Tsyro (Kaz-Ukr/Ford) at 27.32 ; 7 D. Housieaux - C. Crespo (Fra/Buggy Optimus) at 31.41 ; 8 M.Serradori - F.Lurquin (Fra-Bel/Buggy SRT) at 31.59 ; 9 M. Zapletal - M. Sykora (SLQ/Hummer) at 34.33 ; 10 Y.Fromont - J. Fromont (Fra/Volkswagen) at 37.49
Overall
1 V. Vasilyev - K. Zhiltsov (Rus/Mini) en 9h06.04 ; 2 T. Magnaldi - F.Borsotto (Fra/Buggy 2WD) at 28.41 ; 3 A. Karginov - A. Mokeev - D. Nikitin (Rus/Kamaz) at 37.00 ; 4 P. Thomasse - P. Larroque (Fra/Buggy Optimus) at 49.05 ; 5 3 P. Sireyjol - FX. Beguin (Fra-Bel/Buggy LCR 30) at 1h13.03 ; 6 D. Housieaux - C. Crespo (Fra/Buggy Optimus) at 1h15.34 ; 7 A. Cherednikov - D. Tsyro (Kaz-Ukr/Ford) at 1h15.42 ; 8 J.A. Sabatier - A. Rizzardi (Fra-Ita/BuggaOne) at 1h24.32 ; 9 M. Zapletal - M. Sykora (SLQ/Hummer) at 1h34.32 ; 10 G. Gomez - L. Fagot (Fra/Buggy Optimus) at 1h39.00
