Luciano Benavides: “I’m super, super proud to win the stage”

Dakar 2026 | Stage 5 | BIVOUAC REFUGE > HAIL
January 8 ^th 2026 - 15:33 [GMT + 3]

Luciano Benavides has won his first stage on this edition of the Dakar and the sixth of his career. It is an unexpected victory following his injury last October and a heavy fall this morning. In the overall rankings, the Argentinean has climbed onto the provisional podium for the first time in his career.

“The pace was really, really high. I started quite well before I made some navigation mistakes and then Edgar caught up with me. But then I was in front of him again and hand a really, really high-speed crash. Nothing was broken, so I restarted covered in Sand. Edgar had a tyre problem I think but I kept pushing and pushing to catch Daniel and Nacho. I’m super, super proud to win the stage because for me it was not even clear if I would be able to race this Dakar. To now be again in the fight for stage winds and a good classification is something that is really good and it gives me a lot of motivation for the next days. I’m super emotional at the moment because I know all the things I had to do to be here, I suffered quite a lot to be here. To get another stage win is not easy. Normally, I have big problems with the tyres because I’m not so heavy. Many other guys had problems today”.