Coma Launches Rally Season
Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge
Rallye News www.fullnoise.com.au
KTM’s Marc Coma launches his rally season with the desert challenge.
The three times Dakar rally winner from Spain is in the United Arab
Emirates to contest the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge and the Sealine Rally in
Qatar, the events that open his racing season for 2013.
Coma was unable to compete in the 2013 edition of the Dakar Rally because he
was not fully fit following corrective surgery for a shoulder injury, the
result of a crash in the 2012 Morocco Rally in late October.
He is now ready to race and to tackle his favorite terrain, the sweeping sands
of the desert, on the KTM 450 Rally bike. The Spanish rider, seeded number one,
leads a top lineup of riders as he begins his defense of his World Rally
Championship title. Coma is a proven rider in the Desert Challenge, which he
has won six times, including the past four editions.
Speaking from the Emirates Coma said he is looking forward to racing after a
long, enforced break.
“We have tested in the desert of Tunisia but it has been a long break because
of my injury and this is the right opportunity to see how fit I am, how quickly
I can find my rhythm and get a good feeling for the bike." Coma stated.
"It will be difficult to win after such a long break but as always I will
do my best.”
Racing with Coma in the Desert Challenge is his Polish factory teammate Jakub
Przygonski and KTM’s extreme Enduro factory rider Taddy Blazusiak,
also of Poland, who contests a rally for the first time to stay in shape ahead
of the highly competitive EnduroCross season.
Other top KTM riders are Pal Anders Ullevalseter of Norway and Miran
Stanovnik of Slovenia with Mohammed Al Balooshi flying the flag for
the UAE seeded at number nine, just behind Blazusiak.
The 23rd edition of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge takes riders around 2000 km
through the spectacular desert terrain of the Western Region of Al Garbia next
week and starts with a super special stage on Yas Ialand, Abu Dhabi, on Saturday,
April 6, followed by five days of competitive desert stages.
The rally starts and finishes at the Yas Marina Circuit and again takes
competitors into the famed Liwa Desert.
Riders will barely have time to draw breath after the Desert Challenge
before they decamp for Qatar and the second round of the FIM Cross Country
Rally World Championship. The Sealine Cross-Country Rally was staged for the
first time in 2012 and coma returns here as the defending champion.
For this rally the KTM factory riders are to be joined by Chilean Chaleco
Lopez, while Blazusiak refocuses his attention on the coming EnduroCross
season.
Lopez, third on an all KTM podium in the Dakar 2013, together
with KTM’s Cyril Despres and Ruben Faria is no stranger to
sweeping desert sands. He will be just at home in this Gulf States desert as he
is in the desert coastal plain of his home country.
This year organizers report that the Sealine Rally will be fought over four
desert selective sections and will feature a longer route over a total of 1500
km but a shorter timetable from April 22-26.
The first three legs will be around 400 km and the final leg for the bikes of
250 km and organizers report there will be plenty of new tracks, more offroad
sections and more tricky navigation. There will be a ceremonial start on Monday
evening and the first of the four desert legs starts on Tuesday morning. The
rally concludes on Friday.
Coma, even though the desert sands seem to be his natural habitat, underlined
that the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge and the Sealine Rally are ‘the toughest’ of
the World Championship series. “Conditions here are tough for racing and the
high temperatures also make it very difficult. It’s going to be a good test of
my fitness”.
FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship 2013 Calendar
April 6-11: Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, United Arab Emirates
April 21-26: Sealine Cross Country Rally, Qatar
May 31 – June 5: Sardegna Cross Country Rally, Sardinia, Italy
June 16-22: Desafio Ruta 40, Argentina
July 23-August 4: Rally Dos Sertoes, Brazil
September 28-October 10 Pharaoh’s Rally, Egypt
Top Image: KTM's Marc Coma launches his rally season with the desert
challenge
Credit: J.Edmunds