Paulo Gonçalves took third place on the first day of dunes and soaring temperatures at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge with Joan Barreda finishing fourth.
As it had been Joan Barreda who claimed victory in yesterday’s Super Special, he was able to choose the starting order and decided to set off from last position of the 54 participants in the bike category. Barreda set about overtaking as many riders as possible, although in the end he finished in fourth place with a deficit of several minutes from the eventual winner.
Team-mate and reigning world champion Paulo Gonçalves, took third showing good consistency throughout, without wanting to take any excessive risks. Hélder Rodrigues experienced some electric problems at the CP2 level and lost valuable time trying to repair a breakdown. He arrived in 26th position, 1 hour 37 minutes from the stage winner.
Paulo Gonçalves: I was third today so it was a really good race for me and for Team HRC. The speed of the race was really high, so I tried to play it safe and guarantee a good all round position. We have four more races in France and we need to stay competitive and safe, because the race is very dangerous with a lot of dunes that you can’t always see coming. We need to take each day as it comes, and try to get a good overall position.
