CS Santosh finishes 47th in 1st stage of Dakar Rally in bike category

France's Xavier De Soultrait of team Yamaha won the first stage with a time of 28:20 minutes on the course in Paraguay on Monday.

Published : Jan 03, 2017 11:31 IST

C.S. Santosh with his Hero MotoSports team-mate, Joaquim Rodrigues, at the beginning of the first stage of the Dakar Rally.
C.S. Santosh with his Hero MotoSports team-mate, Joaquim Rodrigues, at the beginning of the first stage of the Dakar Rally.
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C.S. Santosh with his Hero MotoSports team-mate, Joaquim Rodrigues, at the beginning of the first stage of the Dakar Rally.

India's C.S. Santosh finished 47th with a time of 32:45 minutes, whereas his Hero MotoSports team-mate, Joaquim Rodrigues, finished 16th (00:29:42) in the first stage of the Dakar Rally in the bike category. France's Xavier De Soultrait of team Yamaha won the first stage with a time of 28:20 minutes on the course in Paraguay on Monday.

Hero MotoSports Team Rally made its grand debut at the Dakar Rally which begun in Asuncion, Paraguay on Monday.

Spain's Juan Pedrero Garcia, who races for Sherko, took second place, finishing just two seconds behind De Soultrait, while American Ricky Brabec came in third, 14 seconds behind the winner in the only stage held in Paraguay, reports Efe.

In the first stage of quads, Brazilian Marcelo Medeiros came first, while Gastón González of Argentina came second and Paraguayan Nelson Sanabria came third.

Nasser Al Attiyah of Qatar won first stage of cars, and Spanish duo of Xavier Pons and Nani Roma came second and third respectively.

Brothers Tim and Tom Coronel won the first and second position in the UTV category, whereas, Russia's Maganov Ravil came third.

Czech Republic's Martin Kolomy came first in the trucks category, with France's Ton Van Genugten and Martin Van Den Brink came second and third.

Thousands of people gathered along the route, cheering as the competitors flew by in the first-ever Dakar Rally to run through Paraguay. The first stage ran from Asuncion, Paraguay's capital, to Resistencia, the capital of the northern Argentine province of Chaco.

This stage presents only minor challenges to the racers and covers 454 kilometers (282 miles), of which 39 kilometres (24 miles) are timed.

The course gets tougher in the second stage, which starts on Tuesday and will take the competitors to San Miguel de Tucuman along a route covering 803 kilometers (nearly 500 miles), of which 275 kilometers (170 miles) are timed, in Santiago del Estero province.

The 39th edition of Dakar, and the ninth to be held in the Americas, features competitions in five categories: cars, motorcycles, trucks, quad bikes and utility task vehicles (UTV), a light off-road vehicle. Around 144 bikes, 37 quads, 87 cars, 10 UTVs and 50 trucks are participating in the event.

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