Africa Eco Race: De Rooy regains time in ‘super-soft dunes’
Finally they were there: dunes. And difficult ones too, which caused shifts in the ranking of the Africa Eco Race. The eighth stage was won by Mathieu Serradori, who took over the lead from Vladimir Vasilyev. Gerard de Rooy crossed the line 26 minutes after Serradori and advanced to fourth in the general ranking, where he has almost four hours to make up to the Frenchman.
“There will be a lot who will lose time”, De Rooy expected at the end of the stage, 439 kilometers from Chami to Amodjar, which is located near Atar. The most difficult strip of dunes was about 40 kilometers long. “They were very difficult dunes. It has been a long time since I have experienced such heavy dunes. They were not big, but they were super soft. It was tough to get through. We have stopped ten times to bring the tire pressure down, so that we could get going again.”
In all likelihood, tomorrow’s stage will cause even more shifts. In the ninth stage, 100 kilometers of dunes are on the menu in the Chinguetti area.
