The first stage victory

9th stage: San Miguel de Tucumán – Córdoba 
Monday 14 January 2013 
The connection section: 406 km 
The speed trial: 293 km 
  
After unplanned but deserved rest the Dakar Rally swung to the second half. Different routes for trucks and other categories, challenging and fast ways, rocky and stony ground – this can describe the ninth stage. Organizers advised that stage and profile suit specialists in the most treacherous and challenging routes. 

Therefore today we were really happy of our crew number 503 – Aleš, Radim and Serge. From the first meters it was clear that they are relaxed and they want to be with the Princess 69 among the first in the waypoints. Sovereign and still leading Dutchman De Rooy had technical problems with the turbocharger at the beginning of the stage, in the end he had problems with tire punctures. He had no luck and finished at the 59th place. In the overall standings he fell to fourth place with the loss of 59 minutes and 56 seconds to the leading Nikolaev on Kamaz. Aleš rode hard, he was at the second place all the time and pulled down the seconds. He avoided the mistakes and in the last measured section accelerated, which meant the first stage victory. After him arrived to the finish Dutch rider Versluis (Man) and Karginov (Kamaz). The stage mixed the order and handed out the other cards. The sixth place of InstaForex Loprais team did not unfortunately changed today after todays victory, the time loss to the winning Nikolaev is 1:31:37. 
  
Pleased by todays result was also Karel Loprais, who predicts a lot of thing, knows the race pretty well and has it deeply rooted in his heart. He said today smiling: “It is obvious Aleš got into cutting the loss very responsibly. We can cheer him for that. Anyone can be unlucky in here, even the best one. For example take look at De Rooy, what happened to him. Alda proved, that he is one of the best drives in the world and that this years Dakar is definitely not finished yet. It will be interesting and we are still in the game.” 
  
Aleš Loprais did not try to hide his satisfaction, happiness and he praised fast time trial: “The organizers prepared beautiful stage. It is more even beautiful because of the fact that we won. It looked more like a WRC trial. We drove trough many passages that we could possibly drifted trough, which is always fun in the truck. After we overtook De Rooy with technical troubles we were cleaning the track for the others. We were the first vehicle in the whole Dakar convoy, because rarely today the trucks started the first. In the finish we had to extinguish the bakes again, but it was totally worth it.“ 
  
10th stage: Córdoba – La Rioja 

Tuesday 15 January 
Speeg goes hand in hand with skill 

Bikes/Quads 
The connection section: 279 km 
The speed trial: 357 km 

Cars/Trucks 
The connection section: 279 km 
The speed trial: 353 km 

The masters of the handlebars and the steering wheel will be most at ease when faced with the challenge of the day. Although the cars and trucks will be separated from the motorcycles, their respective programmes will have similar features. Winding tracks will be interspersed with fast ones, as the competitors pass through a succession of landscapes from wooded areas to barren plateaux. The whole setting may remind the most open-minded participants of Ireland in some places!