THERIC ENTERS A NEW DIMENSION
Sometimes it is easy to forget the obvious but the first rule to follow in order to shine on the Dakar is, of course, to stay in the race. In spite of his mishaps on the prologue and then on stage 3, which ensured his appearance in the ‘Crushing Blow of the Day’ section of our coverage, Neels Theric has well and truly turned things around, unlike some of his rivals in the Rally 2 class who have exited the Dakar after crashes or mechanical problems. In no particular order, Harith Noah, Mike Docherty and Mathieu Dovèze have left the rally and the Frenchman has taken full advantage of this new situation. Theric has had to wait for his fourth participation to win a special in his class. But now he has gone one better, even scoring another stage win today, making it a full house on the two legs of the marathon-refuge stage, which, incidentally, demonstrates his rare ability to manage the mechanical side of his race. Chinese constructor Kove will be eternally grateful to the rider who offered them their first success yesterday and who they entrusted back into 2023 with taking charge of the machine’s development and improving its reliability. He has been competing with the best in the Rally 2 class and will battle it out on the next stages against Preston Campbel, Konrad Dabrowski, Martim Ventura or Rui Barbosa but Neels has also proved that he is capable of holding his own, at least occasionally, among the elite of the Rally GP class, thanks to 6th place on today’s stage, just one second behind two-time Dakar winner Ricky Brabec.
