Warm-up day in Sardinia. Paulo Goncalves, fifth place in the first stage

2014-06-08 12:29
Paulo Gonçalves was the fastest rider of the HRC Team in this first stage of the Sardinia Rally. Barreda and Rodrigues make it to the Top10 today before heading for one of the most important stages of the race tomorrow.

The first stage between San Teodoro and Arbatax of 326 kilometers consisted of two Specials of which 47 kilometers from the first and 75 kilometers from the second were completely new to the Sardegna Rally Race. This first stage has allowed the riders to get into race mode while crossing and surrounding various mountains of the littoral of the Olastra coast on the east side of the island.

This first stage was not a very complicated one in terms of navigation; the tracks were defined, wide, rather hard and a bit dusty. Due to this, Joan Barreda, the fastest man during yesterday’s prologue, decided to start from fourth position in order to avoid visual inconvenient that could end up affecting his riding. Unfortunately the pace that he maintained was not enough for him to win this stage. He has given away a few minutes and is currently on eighth place in the general standing.

Paulo Gonçalves started behind his HRC teammate and managed to get to him with a very good pace, setting the third best time during the first Special and ending up fifth at the end of the day. It is a good position to be in order to battle on the following stage of 170 kilometers that will take place tomorrow.

For Hélder Rodrigues it has also been a good day, finishing in the Top10 and only three minutes behind the leader of the race.
Paulo Goncalves
Paulo Goncalves 5th +1'23 Team HRC

The Special today was good. I started in fifth position and in the second Special I ended up opening the track. It went pretty well: I was fifth at only over one minute from the first guy. I lost some time because I found a closed door and I had to get off the bike to open it and the other riders cached up with me. In the end, I think that it went pretty well. I am satisfied so far because I know that we have a lot more days ahead of us.


Joan Barreda
Joan Barreda 8th +3'31 Team HRC

I have to day that today was a hard day for me. After the first Special I was leading the way. I didn’t have a good feeling with the navigation of a bike that I am not use to compete with; I didn’t feel comfortable at all. Tomorrow’s stage will be longer and we will try to stay in the fight.



Helder Rodrigues
9th +3'45 Team HRC

The first race day has been hard, the race pace was high and with more navigation than expected. Everyone has been pretty fast. I think that it wasn’t a bad start even if I have finished ninth. I know the position is not ideal but I am not far from the leading man. What is important now is to continue keep going and attack.

Wolfgang Fischer
Team HRC - Team Manager

Today we completed the first stage of the Sardinia Rally, two short Specials in which the riders have finished in the Top10. Tomorrow we will face a very important Special of 170km for which the riders will be in very good starting positions. We hope they will be able to do a good stage. All good, that is all I can say so far.

Source: Team HRC

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