Sam Sunderland: “The race is not done until you pass that chequered flag on the last stage”

Dakar 2022 | Stage 11 | ALULA > YANBU
January 13 ^th 2022 - 13:15 [GMT + 3]

Sunderland finished 2nd on the stage for the third time on this edition of the Dakar. He has taken the lead in the general rankings for the sixth time on the eve of the end to the rally.

“It was a really difficult stage again as we expected. There was a lot of navigation for the guys in front. I tried to stay on top of the roadbook. Already, after 4 km there were lines everywhere. I think there were some guys who were confused there. We had quite a lot of dust in the first few kilometres and then I really just tried to push all day to make some time up in the dunes. I’m feeling really good and looking forward to tomorrow. The race is not done until you pass that chequered flag on the last stage. As we know, the navigation on this race is really difficult. I’m just going to stay focused and keep doing my best. That’s all I can do and the others will do what they do. Everybody’s working really hard – the team and myself – and that’s what we’ve tried to prepare for. It’s been really difficult this race because, as you saw, the times are so close every day. I’ll just try and have a clean stage tomorrow and hopefully we can get it done. As you saw, not just me, but a lot of guys sort of took it easy yesterday on the stage to have a better start position today. You saw that today everybody pulled the pin; it was ‘let’s go’. I was the same, all in and here we are. I’ll try and do my best tomorrow. It’s not a smart plan until the race is finished and you’ve done the job. So far, so good and we’ll just keep trying to do the same.