While the prologue, which sees riders travel from Agadir to Plage Blanche, featured the shortest special stage of the event at 85km, it was not without its challenges. Special Stage 1 sees riders travel along the coastline, conquering a number of dunes before the landscape opens up to large open plains with sandy tracks. A high-speed stage, some of the most significant challenges on this route are a number of tricky left-right combinations as well as a difficult navigation. Tarrés was flying in Morocco to win the opening stage.
Tarrés got off to a strong start, completing the first timed special in one hour, 12 minutes and 18 seconds, over ten minutes clear of his nearest competitor, to top the overall classification on his Ténéré 700 World Rally fitted with the three-stage GYTR kits.
Sunday will see the team take on a gruelling second stage including the longest individual special at 363km.
Marc Bourgeois (Team Manager)
“Today was the first day with an 85km prologue to know exactly the order for the second stage. Pol did a very good job, as it was a tricky navigation. After the Africa Eco Race he has continued to train in order to further improve, which is nice to see as he’s done a very good job. He completed the special in a very good time too. Tomorrow will be another day; it will be a very long day as the special stage is 363km across many different terrains with some tricky navigation.”
Pol Tarrés – 1st (1hr 12′ 18″)
“Today was a really good day, I was opening the track and it was a difficult day for navigation, so I controlled the situation well. It was difficult, but I am very happy as I took some important minutes for the second stage and more than that I have a lot more confidence in navigation. I am happy with the bike too, after our test last week we are learning a lot with the new GYTR package. Tomorrow will be our first long stage, so we will focus on continuing what we have started and hopefully we remain strong.”
