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Adrien Van Beveren Secures Strong Fifth Place Finish On Dakar Rally Stage Nine

Adrien Van Beveren Secures Strong Fifth Place Finish On Dakar Rally Stage Nine

Monster Energy Yamaha Rally Team’s Adrien Van Beveren has recorded his best stage finish at the 2021 Dakar Rally. Finding his form during the second half of the event, the Frenchman enjoyed the technical nature of today’s special, posting the fifth fastest time through the challenging stage. With his strong result, Adrien advances to 10th in the overall provisional classification. Frustratingly, after showing much promise during this year’s Dakar, Ross Branch’s participation has come to a premature end following a technical issue.

Stage nine of the 2021 Dakar Rally was a loop stage beginning in, and returning to, Neom, on the sandy shore of the Red Sea. After a few kilometres riding over smooth sand, the 465-kilometre special – the second longest of the entire rally - took riders inland onto sandy tracks and rocky trails that formed much of the stage’s terrain. Nearing the conclusion, accurate navigation through many technical canyons was needed in order to secure a strong result.

As the 13th rider to enter the day’s special, Adrien Van Beveren had an optimal starting position for the stage but opted to concentrate on his road book and focus on riding his own race. The strategy worked with the Frenchman quickly up to speed on the challenging terrain. Reaching each checkpoint among the leading riders, AVB placed a fine fifth overall - his best result in this year’s event and a positive boost for the Monster Energy Yamaha Rally Team. Following his strong performance on stage nine, Adrien advances to 10th in the general rankings and looks forward to the final three stages.

Following many highlights for Ross Branch during the 2021 Dakar Rally - headlined by narrowly missing out on winning stage six by a slender 14 seconds – frustratingly a technical issue shortly after starting stage nine brought the Botswana native’s time in the rally to an end.

The 10th stage of the 2021 Dakar Rally opens with beautiful scenery and breath taking views of the Red Sea, before heading east and into a series of rocky canyons. Patience and accurate navigation throughout the 342-kilometre special will ensure strong stage results ahead of the penultimate day of racing.

Adrien Van Beveren – Monster Energy Yamaha Rally Team

5th Stage 9

Today was a really good day for me and I’m really pleased with my riding, my navigation, everything went perfect for me. There wasn’t as much sand on the stage as expected, but I was still able to make a good result, so this gives me a lot of confidence for the coming days. It feels like all the work that I put in has finally paid off, up until today it didn’t feel that way so I have a really good feeling now and look ahead to ending the Dakar with more strong results.

Adrien Van Beveren – Monster Energy Yamaha Rally Team
Alexandre Kowalski - Yamaha Europe Off-Road Racing Manager

Another good and bad day for the team. The good was that Adrien found his form and his confidence. The stage went through the same area where he crashed out of the race last year, but he was able to put this behind him, keep his focus and maintain a strong pace. He rode really well and by far it was the best day for him in this year’s rally. Sadly, for Ross, a technical issue means that his race is over. He was competing with the best riders in the rally up until his crash on Sunday, and even after that he showed such tremendous spirit and passion to continue and keep pushing on the second leg of the marathon stage yesterday. It’s really sad, he’s been incredible and it’s a shame for his race to end like this.

Alexandre Kowalski - Yamaha Europe Off-Road Racing Manager
Dakar Rally 2021

Stage 9 Provisional Classification

1. Kevin Benavides (Honda) 4:49:15
2. Ricky Brabec (Honda) 4:50:33 + 0:01:18
3. Jose Ignacio Cornejo (Honda) 4:50:49 + 0:01:34
4. Sam Sunderland (KTM) 4:59:26 + 0:10:11
5. Adrien Van Beveren (Yamaha) 5:03:07 + 0:13:52
6. Matthias Walkner (KTM) 5:03:34 + 0:14:19

Dakar Rally 2020
Dakar Rally 2021

Overall Provisional Classification (after stage 9)

1. Jose Ignacio Cornejo (Honda) 36:51:00
2. Kevin Benavides (Honda) 37:02:24 + 0:11:24
3. Sam Sunderland (KTM) 37:05:34 + 0:14:34
4. Ricky Brabec (Honda) 37:08:26 + 0:17:26
5. Joan Barreda (Honda) 37:20:00 + 0:29:00
6. Daniel Sanders (KTM) 37:29:23 + 0:38:23

10. Adrien Van Beveren (Yamaha) 37:53:48 + 1:02:48

Dakar Rally 2020
Dakar Rally 2021

Race Schedule

Stage 1 | Jan 3 | Jeddah to Bisha | Total: 622 km | SS: 277 km
Stage 2 | Jan 4 | Bisha to Wadi Al Dawasir | Total: 685 km | SS: 457 km
Stage 3 | Jan 5 | Wadi Al Dawasir to Wadi Al Dawasir | Total: 629 km | SS: 403 km
Stage 4 | Jan 6 | Wadi Al Dawasir to Riyadh | Total: 813 km | SS: 337 km
Stage 5 | Jan 7 | Riyadh to Al Qaisumah | Total: 795 km | SS: 456 km
Stage 6 | Jan 8 | Al Qaisumah to Ha’il | Total: 688 km | SS: 347 km
Rest Day | Jan 9 | Ha’il
Stage 7 | Jan 10 | Ha’il to Sakaka (Marathon) | Total: 737 km | SS: 453 km
Stage 8 | Jan 11 | Sakaka to Neom | Total: 709 km | SS: 375 km
Stage 9 | Jan 12 | Neom to Neom | Total: 579 km | SS: 465 km
Stage 10 | Jan 13 | Neom to AlUla | Total: 583 km | SS: 342 km
Stage 11 | Jan 14 | AlUla to Yanbu | Total: 557 km | SS: 511 km
Stage 12 | Jan 15 | Yanbu to Jeddah | Total: 452 km | SS: 225 km

Dakar Rally 2020