Dakar 2018, Stage 11: Oriol Mena Breaks In Top 10; Santosh Rises To 35th

Stage 11 of the 2018 Dakar rally was the second marathon stage of this season and saw participants ride from Belen to Fiambala, with a 205 km liaison and a timed section of 280 km. The Indian contingent performed extremely well in this stage with Hero Motorsports riders Oriol Mena and CS Santosh posting impressive results. Mena finished in a career best 10th place, while Santosh progressed to finish 35th overall. Sherco TVS' solo rider Joan Pedrero continues to put up a consistent performance and finished 14th in general classifications.

(CS Santosh is about 1hr25m down from stage leader Toby Price at the end of Stage 11)

Santosh was in his best form through the marathon stage and managed to finish the day as the 33rd fastest rider. While he is still a good 1hr25m down on stage leader Toby Price, the Indian rider has shown promising results and can finish under top-30 by the end of this week.

Meanwhile, Mena managed to break into the top-10 positions at the end of Stage 11 with the 9th fastest time. The rider finished 10th overall, and there's a good chance he will keep things that way in what is his debut season in one of the world's most challenging rallies.

Joan Pedrero finishes the stage in 8th place in his best performance at Dakar yet. The Sherco TVS rider finished 14th in the general classifications and now trails behind Mena by just 11 minutes.

Stage 12 of the rally between Fiambala and San Juan of 723 km has been cancelled owing to weather conditions for the bikes and quads category. The 12th stage was supposed to be the second leg of the marathon with riders receiving no overnight assistance from the teams. Stage 13 will now start from San Juan later today. Stage 12, however, continues for the cars and trucks categories since the route is different from that of quads and bikes.