Starting in front costs De Rooy in 3rd stage Silk Way Rally

Jul 10, 2017

Having to start the third stage of the Silk Way Rally in second cost Gerard de Rooy valuable time. Starting in front means harder navigation and allowing the followers to run faster following the tracks. Thus the stage win went to Siarhei Viazovich, followed by Martin Kolomy and Ton van Genugten. De Rooy finished in eighth, losing 17 minutes on the MAZ.

On the foothill of the Ural mountains in the stage between Ufa in Russia and Kostanay in Kazakhstan De Rooy followed the roadbook and the piste closely. The trucks starting further behind could easily follow his tracks and cut off the many twists and turns. “I knew early in the stage that this would cost time”, De Rooy comments immediately after finishing the stage. “But I didn’t think it would be 17 minutes. That’s quite a lot. I had the feeling it was quite a good day. We didn’t really slow down, except for a quick stop to close the board of the back of the truck, that had come loose.”

Halfway through the 329 kms long special stage De Rooy was passed by one of the Kamaz trucks and he saw their strategy: going straight full gas instead of following the winding paths through the Russian plains. “They cut about every turn. I find that too risky. I don’t want to overlook a hole that is not in the roadbook and get stuck for hours. It was decent driving that cost me this much time today. I’m not happy with that of course.”

Petronas Team De Rooy Iveco team mate Ton van Genugten – starting as ninth truck – also took profit of the tracks of the frontrunners and of the trucks cutting the corners, thus setting the third fastest time of the day. Artur Ardavichus finished in ninth, just seconds behind De Rooy.

Stage 3: Ufa – Kostanoy (329 km)

1 304 VIAZOVICH S. (BLR) 3h33m14s

2 311 KOLOMY M. (CZE) 0m55s

3 306 VAN GENUGTEN T. (NLD) 3m39s

4 303 SOTNIKOV D. (RUS) 4m34s

5 300 MARDEEV A. (RUS) 5m27s

6 312 SHIBALOV A. (RUS) 6m47s

7 316 VISHNEUSKI A. (BLR) 13m36s

8 302 DE ROOY G. (NLD) 17m07s

9 310 ARDAVICIUS A. (KAZ) 17m43s

10 301 VAN DEN BRINK M. (NLD) 28m51s

Standings after 3 stages (provisional)

1 311 KOLOMY M. (CZE) 6h45m07s

2 312 SHIBALOV A. (RUS) 2m40s

3 303 SOTNIKOV D. (RUS) 5m13s

4 300 MARDEEV A. (RUS) 8m21s

5 306 VAN GENUGTEN T. (NLD) 10m41s

6 302 DE ROOY G. (NLD) 10m47s

7 310 ARDAVICIUS A. (KAZ) 12m41s

8 301 VAN DEN BRINK M. (NLD) 22m18s

9 304 VIAZOVICH S. (BLR) 49m29s

10 317 KOVACS M. (HUN) 1h13m20s

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