Summarize

Argentinian Luciano Benavides benefited KTM teammate Daniel Sanders crashing to jump into a slender Dakar 2025 Bike lead over Honda rider Ricky Brabec on Stage 10 Wednesday. French Honda rider Adrien van Beveren sped to victory while South African Michael Docherty romped to a sixth Rally 2 win. Sanders dropped to fourth overall after limping home. SA riders Ross Branch and Bradley Cox also hobbled to the line.

A dune-rich 371 km run, Stage 10 headed from the second desert no-service Marathon bivouac to Bisha. Third overall, Benavides set the opening checkpoint ablaze as he led Honda men, Californian Ricky Brabec and Frenchman Adrien van Beveren, Rally 2 leader Michael Docherty, Chilean Ignacio Cornejo’s Hero, and overall leader Daniel Sanders KTM. 

Van Beveren led Benavides, Brabec and Docherty 100 kilometres later, but there was huge drama when leader Sanders crashed heavily. With a little help from Brabec, Sanders hobbled back onto the bike. He struggled to keep pace from there plummeting down the day order. At 200 km, van Beveren led Benavides and Cornejo, with Docherty in a 3-way Rally 2 duel with Slovenian Toni Mulec’s KTM and Italian Paolo Lucci’s Honda. 

Further back, Sanders had lost 20 minutes and the overall lead to the duelling Benavides and Brabec. Also struggling, patched up Motswana Ross Branch and his patched up Hero Moto lost time as he made steady progress following his two Tuesday crashes and no service overnight. Fellow former South African champion Bradley Cox was slowed with a clutch issue on his Sherco.

Up front, van Beveren took over from Benavides, Cornejo, Rally 2 leader Mulec, Brabec and Docherty. The Frenchman duly took the day from Benavides, Howes, Brabec, Cornejo and Docherty, who recovered to take yet another Rally 2 day win from Mulec. Branch rode home a provisional tenth with Sanders losing 27 minutes to 13th between Original men Ben Melot 12th, and Josep Perdo 15th and ahead of the struggling Cox.

Overall Luciano Benavides’ KTM leads Ricky Brabec by all of 41 seconds with Honda teammate Tosha Schareina third, 16 minutes adrift. Daniel Sanders is just 17 seconds further back in fourth from Howes, van Beveren, Cornejo, Branch and Cox ninth in Rally GP. Despite not winning a stage, Honda’s Preston Campbell leads Rally 2 by three minutes from Toni Mulec and Ben Melot leads Josep Perdo by eight minutes in Original.

Three days and just shy of 800 km of racing remain of Dakar 2026, starting with Thursday’s 347 km ride to Al Henakiyah. Your Dakar Bike Report is powered by Tork Craft tools. Click here for the Dakar Car Repot