Daniel Sanders: “I sat and had a picnic for a bit and waited for three minutes”

Dakar 2022 | Stage 3 | AL DUWADIMI > AL SALAMIYA
January 4 th 2022 - 12:57 [GMT + 3]

“Chucky” claims that he deliberately stopped during the special to avoid winning it, which shows the best rookie of 2021 has somewhat of a nerve!

Daniel Sanders : « Je me suis arrêté trois minutes »
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“We had a really fast part this morning and then it followed into some nice dunes, which were really, really good. I made a lot of time up in the first sixty kilometres of the stage. Then I sort of made about a minute on the guys and I kept continuing through the stage because it had been shortened to 260 km. In the end, I pushed all the way and could see there were no navigation mistakes. Just before the finish, I sat and had a picnic for a bit and waited for three minutes because I thought I was pushing all day and it was a really good pace and thought I would be leading. So, I stopped for three minutes and checked the clock. I rode perfectly and I think I finished fourth on the stage which means I don’t have to open tomorrow. I knew I was in front and I’d spoken with Jordi last night and Norbert in our team and Coma and we said we’d push all day. In the end, the last kilometres were over some rocky sections, so I thought maybe they would play with the navigation here. It was really good to push all day, the bike was perfect. I just played it smart because tomorrow is the longest stage of the race and I wanted to start back a bit and catch the guys in front. I think today was good in not losing time to anyone. I’m really in the fight at the moment, but it’s day three and I thought to slow down and be smart for once was a good thing. It would have been cool to have another stage win but we’re here for twelve days not just to win each stage because it happened to me on the second day when I lost thirty minutes, so, yeah, we had to play it a little bit smarter”.

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