Dakar Bikes, Stage 8: Price grabs overall lead with fourth stage win

KTM factory rider Toby Price took over from Paulo Goncalves atop the Dakar Rally bikes leaderboard with his fourth stage win of the event on Monday.

Having been just over three minutes behind Goncalves at the rest day, Price surged into the lead at the sixth waypoint of Stage 8 and steadily increased his cushion during the remainder of the 393km Salta-Belen test.

The Australian completed the day 5m17s clear of Goncalves, giving him his fifth career Dakar stage win and a lead of 2m05s over the Honda rider overall.

Kevin Benavides (Honda) led at the halfway point of the stage before being overhauled by Price, going on to finish eight minutes down in third, while Pablo Quintanilla (Husqvarna) and Stefan Svitko (KTM) made up the top five for the day.

The Slovakian rider still holds third overall, albeit 14 minutes behind Price, ahead of Quintanilla, Benavides and Stage 7 winner Antoine Meo (KTM).

Lead Yamaha rider Helder Rodrigues, sixth on the day, KTM privateer Gerard Farres and Sherco duo Joan Pedrero and Alain Duclos - who swapped places as the latter suffered a difficult stage - complete the top 10.

Standings after Stage 8:

Pos.	No.	Rider	Bike	Time/Gap
1	3	Toby Price	KTM	27h28m56s
2	2	Paulo Goncalves	Honda	2m05s
3	5	Stefan Svitko	KTM	14m14s
4	4	Pablo Quintanilla	Husqvarna	21m26s
5	47	Kevin Benavides	Honda	25m55s
6	49	Antoine Meo	KTM	28m44s
7	7	Helder Rodrigues	Yamaha	30m51s
8	23	Gerard Farres	KTM	37m32s
9	17	Joan Pedrero	Sherco	39m41s
10	20	Alain Duclos	Sherco	49m41s