Dakar
Dakar: BMW stage 14 report
Luc Alphand achieves first victory at Stage 14. Shining sun, bright snow and a winner podium: During his career as ski-racer, Luc Alphand many times celebrated on the podium and quite as often he was dreaming of being well in front at the Dakar ...
Published: Jan 18, 2003, 2:23 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Luc Alphand achieves first victory at Stage 14.
Shining sun, bright snow and a winner podium: During his career as ski-racer, Luc Alphand many times celebrated on the podium and quite as often he was dreaming of being well in front at the Dakar Rally. The 37 years old French had already scratched the first position twice at this rally reaching second places, but today he finally managed to win the stage as it was already predicted by many experts.
After a faultless and smooth drive BMW X5-pilot Luc Alphand was leading by 22 seconds in front of Fontenay/Picard. "It is like a dream, I have won the first stage at the Dakar Rally in my life and I can hardly believe it. There is no comparison, not one of my skiing-victories was as beautiful as this one today", an overjoyed Alphand sputtered after finishing the special stage. "The stage was characterised by demanding navigation and malicious sand fields, but we managed the challenge excellently. My co-pilot Matthew Stevenson has already won a stage at the Dakar Rally, but he is as excited as I am", Alphand expressed before entering his BMW X5 again and leaving for a 375 kilometres liaison to Luxor.
Team manager Sven Quandt was relieved, too: "We are pleased for Luc and Matthew that they managed to be at the top today. After the very unlucky drop out of Gregoire de Mevius, winning the stage means both a good reward and an additional thrust of motivation". Luc Alphand without any burden can now concentrate on accelerating at the last two long stages of the Dakar Rally on Friday and Saturday. Whereas the leaders in the total classification will have to drive tactical in order to secure their positions, the French will try hard to get on to the front and to win the classification of four-wheeled diesel vehicles.
Stage 15 will lead over 576 kilometres (including 477 km special stage) from Luxor to Abu Rish tomorrow. This will be the second stage at the Dakar Rally, where the teams will have to do without GPS satellite navigation system. Again, the roadbooks present numerous changes of direction and all co-pilots will have great responsibility in finding the proper way. The course will be on a well-marked track with sandy and stony patches.
-bmw-
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Dakar: Stage 14 Dakhla - Louxor notes
Next article Dakar: Mitsubishi stage 14 report
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Luc Alphand
Peugeot tests 2008 DKR in France
Dakar
Dakar
Peugeot 2008 DKR testing
Peugeot tests 2008 DKR in France
Gadasin wins first FIA Cross Country Baja event
Cross-Country Rally
Cross-Country Rally
Gadasin wins first FIA Cross Country Baja event
Series final focus
Dakar
Dakar
Series final focus
Latest news
NASCAR explains why they penalized Zane Smith after latest clash with Carson Hocevar
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
7 h
NASCAR explains why they penalized Zane Smith after latest clash with Carson Hocevar
Porsche boss Laudenbach says he is "not happy" with how things were handled by IMSA in 2026
IMSA
IMSA IMSA 7 h
Porsche boss Laudenbach says he is "not happy" with how things were handled by IMSA in 2026
Five things to watch out for at the F1 United States GP
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
7 h
Five things to watch out for at the F1 United States GP
KTM sees MotoGP 2027 as a fresh start: “We never had the chance to build a new bike”
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP 8 h
KTM sees MotoGP 2027 as a fresh start: “We never had the chance to build a new bike”
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe