Scorching heat of more than thirty degrees, a thousand sports kilometers and dunes of various sizes - this is what the week of athletes who took part in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge race looked like. A hundred crews lined up at the start line of the prologue on Sunday, including the CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team athletes.
On Friday, the participants had to get up early again, because after completing the speed section, there were still more than a hundred kilometers of public roads to the finish arch in Abu Dhabi - the same place where this rally started. True, the start was delayed by an hour and a half due to the thick fog in the morning.
Antanas Kanopkinas, who passed Friday's 206-kilometer speed stage and crossed the finish line of the rally, said that he could rest and ride again: "This day was very hot, and in general, the whole rally, as its name suggests, is a real desert challenge. There were difficult moments, but overall everything is really very good. I would be happy to ride it again.
All days we rode on bigger or smaller dunes and it allowed us to discover the strong and weak points of our technique. After covering so many kilometers, we discovered what improvements we need to make to the quads. We will now be even more prepared for Dakar rally."
A. Kanopkinas thanked all partners for riding together and helping to achieve common goals.
Adomas Gančierius, who like his teammate started for the first time in Abu Dhabi, already broke into the third position of the quad classification on Thursday, and before Friday, he said that the goal of the day is to reach the finish line without any problems and keep the third place.
"The goal of the day was clear, but the delayed start made the conditions more difficult. We had to ride when the sun was high, so it was hot, and because there was no shades, you couldn't see the terrain at all. This was especially felt when we entered the white sand dunes. I drove carefully, the navigation was not difficult, so everything went according to plan.
Since Antanas started a little later, we agreed that he would catch up with me in the first part of the track and then we would ride and finish together. We also managed to stick to this plan and overcome the sand dunes together."
A. Gančierius climbed on the third step of the podium in the quad category.
The third place winner said that at first it was not easy to believe that he would have to stand on the podium and receive a medal in the evening, but at the same time, he felt great gratitude to the team and partners and did not hide that at first he needed to recover from this challenge, but his mind was already spinning about other starts.
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