Photo by: Maragni M. - KTM Images
Coma loses 13 minutes after a navigation mistake
The MRW rider keeps the second place of the overall standings, 10 minutes behind the new leader, Cyril Despres. Joan Pedrero finishes the day in fifteenth position.
The exciting duel between Marc Coma and Cyril Despres in today's stage was over after CP3, when Marc Coma made a navigation mistake that made him lose 13 minutes at the end of the day. The MRW rider finished seventh in a stage that Joan Pedrero completed in fifteenth place, after stopping to help another rider.
Despite the difficulty of being the first on track, Marc Coma did a great performance in the first half of today's stage, 270-kilometre long. The MRW rider was the leader until the third Control Point, a stony and technical part. Nevertheless, a navigation mistake at that point, as he followed the route set for the cars —which had a different route until the end of the stage— made him lose a valuable time until he noticed his error 6 kilometres later, so he had to go back to the previous CP to take the correct path. Coma arrived to the parc ferme in San Juan after losing 13 minutes and 4 seconds to the winner of the stage, French rider Cyril Despres, who now leads the overall standings with an advantage of 10 minutes and 12 seconds over the MRW rider, who is second.
His team mate Joan Pedrero was involved today in one of the highlights of the day, as he stopped in the stage to help American rider Quinn Cody, who had suffered a crash. In the sporting aspect, the MRW rider was consistent and finished in the top fifteen, 20 minutes and 8 seconds behind the winner. With this result, Pedrero takes the eleventh place of the overall standings.
The fourth stage will follow tomorrow a 750-kilometre route between the Argentinean cities of San Juan and Chilecito. The two MRW riders will find a terrain similar to that of today and with a timed stage of 326Km. The spectacular canyons of La Rioja province will accompany all the participants in the final part of the stage.
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