KTM’s Marc Coma has triumphed in the sand once again with his fifth victory in the Pharaons Rally in Egypt adding yet another title to his collection. The Spanish rider also won in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2010. Coma won three of the six stages for the overall victory, which was also his third in 2011 in the World Championship. He has therefore started in three in 2011 and won them all.
Coma wins again
Coma, three times Dakar winner and four times world champion took early control when he won the first stage and from then on attacked the rest of the race with typical clever tactics to preserve both his strength and his lead. Marc was able to extend his first stage lead of just over four minutes to more than twelve minutes by the end of the third stage. He then conserved his strength in Stage Four, sacrificing several minutes off his overall lead to prepare for the longest stretch of the competition on Day Five, coincidentally the factory rider’s birthday. Coma then went onto the marathon stage with a 10-minute margin and powered his KTM 450 Rally bike through the 540 km (444 km of timed special) to win the stage then wrapped up the title in the final dash back to the Great Pyramid of Giza back in Cairo.
It is now up to Coma to tackle the Morocco Rally to secure the 2011 World Championship title and then redirect his focus on the Dakar 2012 starting on January 1, 2012 in South America. The next edition of the toughest rally in the world breaks new territory by entering Peru for the first time.
Marc Coma: As far as I can remember this has been the hardest edition of the Pharaons. That makes the victory all the more important for me and I am very pleased to have won the title again. We managed a good pace but we could also approach the second half of the race quite calmly because of the 14-minute advantage. I am happy about the bike and we would make so more progress with it during the rally. It was also a challenge to maintain concentration because of the high level of the technical demands of the rally. It was physically hard, but it was good training for the next Dakar. I think that we can all be very happy, as all members of the team did a fantastic job.”
KTM rider Jakub Przygonski of Poland was also highly competitive throughout the rally scoring five top three places in the six stages to finish overall third. Danish KTM rider Jes Munk finished just off the podium in fourth overall on his KTM 450
Overall Results 1, Marc Coma, Spain, KTM 450 Rally 23:58:01 2, Helder Rodrigues, Portugal, Yamaha WR450F +13:39 3, Jakub Przygonski, Poland, KTM LC4 +22:38 4, Jes Munk, Denmark, KTM 450 +03:48:23
Image: Mitter J. / KTM Images