Skyler Howes: “It wasn’t really my best stage”

Dakar 2023 | Stage 12 | SHUBAYTAH > SHUBAYTAH
January 13 ^th 2023 - 10:38 [GMT + 3]

 Howes has not enjoyed a brilliant day today. The fifth rider to start collected no bonuses on the special, unlike Toby Price, and finished 6th on the stage, 3 minutes behind the winner. He has lost the lead at the summit of the rally to Price but is less than 30 seconds behind the new leader.

 “I would say it wasn’t really my best stage. I didn’t really make it up a couple of the dunes, which was really frustrating. I had to stop at the CP to put a tracker in my back, but all in all it was, like, just a few seconds and stuff like that here and there. Still, it wasn’t my best day out there. It’s a little bit frustrating to find the rhythm, but it was clean. We got through it okay, the navigation was good. I felt a bit of the pace today. But it was alright and we’ve still got a couple of more days left, so we’ll keep pushing. I have no idea if I’m still first. I would like to hope so, but we’re fighting for seconds out there and any time you spend, literally three extra seconds to put a tracker in your pocket is just extra time and those seconds count, so it’s gnarly to be this close after so much racing, but it’s fun. It is a bit frustrating when you don’t really nail it on the days, but that’s how the Dakar works. There are so many days that you have to be on it and I feel like today I was a little bit off the pace. It is what it is and we’ll keep pushing. Tomorrow is another day in the dunes and then the last day is a reverse order start, so the idea would be to push as hard as possible tomorrow. I think I’m going to have some tracks to follow tomorrow, so I can push really hard. That’s what I’ll do, I’ll push as much as I can and we’ll hopefully come to that last stage in a good position, then we can bring it home”.