Tarrés Overcomes Adversity to Battle to Fourth on Stage 5 at Morocco Desert Challenge
The Ténéré Yamaha Rally Team’s Pol Tarrés kept his cool to overcome a couple of roadbook errors to finish a challenging fifth stage at the Morocco Desert Challenge in fourth and maintain his overall lead at over an hour.
Heading into Tuesday’s 261km special stage, Tarrés had been dominating the 2024 Morocco Desert Challenge on his Ténéré 700 World Rally with the three-stage GYTR Kits fitted against the 450cc single-cylinder prototype bikes. The 30-year-old won the first three stages and overcame a sandstorm on Stage 4 to finish in second and extend his lead to one hour, five minutes, and 54 seconds.
Stage 5 would prove to be truly challenging for the former-hard enduro rider, who is still relatively new to the world of rally raid, having only competed in his first event in 2022. Once again leading out the stage, without the benefit of other riders’ tracks to follow, Tarrés was fastest through the first few checkpoints when he had to deal with two missing waypoints due to an incorrect roadbook. This meant that after leading for most of the stage, he lost some time and could not attack the end of the stage in his usual style, instead wisely entering damage limitation mode.
While other riders would have panicked and made costly mistakes, the Andorran belied his lack of experience and remained calm, managing to navigate the issues superbly and finish the stage in fourth, with a time of four hours, 20 minutes, and 41 seconds, just three minutes and 22 seconds behind the winner of the special. This allowed Tarrés to limit the damage to his overall lead and maintain a healthy advantage in the general classification of one hour, two minutes and 32 seconds, with just three stages to go.
Wednesday’s Stage 6 is a 205km loop stage that starts and ends at the bivouac in Merzouga. While one of the shorter specials of the rally, it could prove to be the toughest of the event, with competitors having to tackle the majestic but incredibly demanding dunes of Erg Erg Znaigi, Erg Ouzina, and Erg Chebbi.
Stage 5 Results
General Classification
Pol Tarrés – Stage 4th/Overall 1st
Ténéré Yamaha Rally Team
“It is another stage completed. Today was not easy, as there were two big mistakes in the road book, which could have proved dangerous, and I was lucky that nothing happened. I was leading for most of the stage, but I lost some time at the first missing waypoint. I am happy that even though the roadbook may have been wrong, I managed to stay calm and find the right way in the end. Obviously, I am disappointed that I could not fight for the stage victory, but we managed to prevent any major damage to my overall lead. While it was not a good day, it shows how far we have come when fourth is a bad result for us. We will reset and be ready to attack again on Stage 6.”
Marc Bourgeois
Ténéré Yamaha Rally Team – Team Manager
“Today was not easy. Pol was riding superbly again but then encountered a couple of missing waypoints due to errors in the roadbook. Honestly, many other, more experienced riders would have panicked at that stage, but Pol once again showed how quickly he is learning and stayed calm, managing to find his way back on track. Obviously, this was not ideal, but these situations can happen in rallies, and Pol, while disappointed, did an amazing job to recover. Sometimes, you learn more when things like this happen, so while he may be unhappy with fourth, he should be very proud of how he managed this situation and has gained even more valuable experience. We need to put today behind us and focus on attaching Stage 6.”
