Dakar Rally Daily

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing's Luciano Benevides did the nearly impossible and won the 2026 Dakar Rally from behind on the final day to take the victory by two seconds over Monster Energy Honda HRC Rally's Ricky Brabec.

Over 100km of final stage racing, Benevides didn't let up, taking advantage of a small navigation mistake in tricky terrain by Brabec to secure his first Dakar Victory, and the 21st for KTM by the slimmest margin ever seen. 

Brabec, for the most part, rode the most flawless rally of the year, avoiding major navigation or terrain mistakes over two weeks and almost 8,000km of racing. But in the final 3km of today's final, Brabec made a wrong turn and it cost him the most valuable seconds of the race. 

This is a stunning victory for Benevides and KTM - a historic one - proving that even when it's almost impossible to win, believing you can is the only way to victory.

Enjoy the show and we will see you at the next round of the World Rally Raid Championship from Portugal in March.

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Dakar Rally Daily is produced and edited by Jesse Ziegler, and hosted by Quinn Cody and Jesse Ziegler.

American Monster Energy Honda HRC Factory Rally ace Ricky Brabec took a decisive stage win today at the 2026 Dakar Rally, besting Red Bull Factory KTM front-runner Luciano Benevides by a mere three minutes and 20 seconds to put himself in prime position for his third Dakar Rally win. 

Brabec's strategy played out yesterday held him back in starting position today - prime placement for making up the :23 second gap Benevides had going in to today. But, Benevides didn't make it easy by racing to the front of the pack early and gathering over two minutes of bonus time on the long, fast stage. The win and time gain will see Brabec lead out a short 100km-ish day tomorrow to the final checkered flag of the rally. If Benevides can find more than three minutes to gain tomorrow, this will go down to the wire, but it's a heavy lift in such a short stage. 

We hear from the top racers in RallyGP, check in with Original by Motul class leader Benji Melot, and hear from yesterday's stage winner Skyler Howes after a demanding day saw his Honda expell ALL OF ITS OIL, yet still finish. Wow! 

One more stage to go tomorrow and this 2026 Dakar Rally is done!

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Dakar Rally Daily is produced and edited by Jesse Ziegler, and hosted by Quinn Cody and Jesse Ziegler.

American Skyler Howes on the Monster Energy Honda HRC Rally Team took his first career stage win today on stage 11 of the 2026 Dakar Rally. His first stage victory comes on his eighth year of Dakar competition and he becomes the ninth American to win a stage in the history of the race. As the 2026 Dakar Rally enters the final two stages, today's results set the stage for an all-out war between Honda and the Red Bull Factory KTM team. 

Honda won the day, and set themselves up for potential success with Howes' teammate Adrian Van Beveren starting first on-course and powering his way into second on the day, helping his other American teammate Ricky Brabec massively. The Honda duo of Van Beveren and Brabec rode together for much of the day, sharing bonus time and even slowing down intentionally to secure a more favorable starting position tomorrow for Brabec. 

KTM RallyGP rookie Edgar Canet put himself back into the fight with a third place finish and Luciano Benevides finished fourth. Honda's Tosha Schareina rounds out the top five. The results of the day mean Benavides leads the overall rally competition by a mere 23 seconds over Brabec, but the KTM rider will start two postions ahead on tomorrow's decisive stage. Brabec will have a more favorable starting spot, looking to race to the front. 

Enjoy today's show as we get down to the wire in this very tight race! 

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The Baja Rally

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Dakar Rally Daily is produced and edited by Jesse Ziegler, and hosted by Quinn Cody and Jesse Ziegler.

Today's race is dominated by the news that Daniel Sanders crashed off a dune and injured his shoulder, dropping him out of the race win contention. Sanders managed to finish the stage and minimize damage, but damage was done and while he's still planning on racing the last three days of the 2026 race, doing so will be extremely difficult even for the gritty Australian.

Adrian Van Beveren took the stage win today after catching the front runners, including his Honda teammates and putting down his signature sand dune speed to take his 7th stage win of his career. Ricky Brabec finished second on the stage, also collecting some bonus time by leading out front and  being credited time back for stopping to assist the downed Sanders at about the 140km mark on the special. Brabec's ride also put him at the top of the general standings heading in to stage 11. 

Luciano Benevides was hoping for a better finish than third on the day from his ninth place starting position today, but struggles in the dunes and a crash kept him four minutes off the leading pace. Luciano now sits second in the general standing, only 56 seconds behind Brabec.

Tosha Schareina also had a tough day holding off the competition, finishing eighth on the day after leading the way at the start. Schareina sits in third overall, 15:43 off the leaders with Sanders in fourth after his disasterous day, 17:37 back from the top of the standings.

We hear from the top finishers, check in with Johnny Campbell and Jordi Vialladoms as well as hear from Original by Motul competitors and the always entertaining Nathan Rafferty.

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The Baja Rally

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Dakar Rally Daily is produced and edited by Jesse Ziegler, and hosted by Quinn Cody and Jesse Ziegler.

We have a great show for you today covering stage nine of the 2026 Dakar Rally. We cover all the motorcycle classes and get a great interview with one of the best stories out of the Malle Moto/Original by Motul class. 

Up front, Monster Energy Honda HRC racer Tosha Schareina got the stage win today over Red Bull Factory KTM's Daniel Sanders by more than four minutes. Schareina took advantage of his fourth place starting position on the day and a tricky navigation note at kilometer 35 to close the gap and get up front. His teammate Ricky Brabec also caught the leading KTM duo up front of Sanders and Luciano Benevides and the four rode together for the rest of the stage. However, Schareina and Sanders pulled away over the stage, sharing the bulk of available lead-out bonus time and pushing Brabec outside the front-running bubble. Brabec would finish fourth today, 6:22 back from the lead.

Rally2 competitor Mike Docherty had a blistering stage, greasing the navigation challenge that caught the leaders out and using his 16th starting position to chase down the RallyGP guys. His performance put him third overall on the day, only 15 second behind Sanders without any bonus time - a fantastic ride from the South African.

American Skyler Howes would finish fifth on the stage aboard his Honda, nearly eight minutes off the lead. 

In the general standing, Sanders regains the lead with a 6:24 cushion over Brabec. Benevides now sits third, seven minutes behind Sanders. Schareina really moved up, now sitting in fourth, about eight minutes behind Benevides with his sights on podium finish by the end of the race. 

Kove's Neels Theric finished second in Rally2 today, with American Preston Campbell coming in third behind Docherty and Theric, riding well enough to remain in 9th overall in the general standings and increasing his lead for the first of many days over Toni Mulec in the Rally2 category. Campbell now has more than 17 minutes to spare after gaining more than eight minutes today.

Malle Moto/Original by Motul competitors continue to pace well with Josep Pedro and Benjamin Melot finishing 11th and 12th, respectively on today's stage. 

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The Baja Rally

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Dakar Rally Daily is produced and edited by Jesse Ziegler, and hosted by Quinn Cody and Jesse Ziegler.

Luciano Benevides put the 2026 Dakar Rally motorcycle competitors on notice today that he is here to stay. Yesterday's stage winner went out like a bullet today, opening the longest special stage of the 2026 course solo, grabbing every available second of bonus time and taking back-to-back stage wins and his third stage win of the year in four days. An absolutely dominating performance from Benevides today saw him not only best Daniel Sanders by nearly five minutes, he also held off a strategic Ricky Brabec by more than five minutes. If that wasn't enough, Benevides also put himself at the front of the overall rankings, leapfrogging over his teammate Sanders to sit at the top with a ten second gap to Sanders. Brabec is third, 4:47 back after the day didn't work out like he'd hoped.d

Stage eight was fast, faster than most racers predicted, and without much in challenging navigation points. And Luciano Benevides was the fastest. 

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The Baja Rally

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Dakar Rally Daily is produced and edited by Jesse Ziegler, and hosted by Quinn Cody and Jesse Ziegler.

The 2026 Dakar Rally is back after a much needed rest day and Luciano Benevides came out swinging! The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing pilot took his seventh in his career today, almost five minutes ahead of his teammate Edgar Canet. 

Canet, rebounding nicely from his rear tire disaster before the rest day kept the pace high, finishing just ahead of Monster Energy Honda HRC's Adrian Van Beveren by only 10 seconds on the day. In the general classification, the race order now stands with Daniel Sanders at the front holding a 4:25 lead over Ricky Brabec with Benavides in third more than ten minutes back. 

Racers on the course were playing strategy for what seems like the first time in the rally today, holding back for favorable start positions tomorrow and looking ahead in the week to try to gain an advantage. 

We catch up with the top finishers, check in with Johnny Campbell to talk strategy and bivouac food, interview the Malle Moto/Original by Motul leader Benji Melo and hear from Anthony Bonello, in person from the pits! Enjoy the show! 

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The Baja Rally

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Dakar Rally Daily is produced and edited by Jesse Ziegler, and hosted by Quinn Cody and Jesse Ziegler.

It's rest day at the 2026 Dakar Rally - the perfect opportunity to annoy some factory racers, check in with the Malle Moto / Original by Motul class racers and get some insight into the professional photographers on the course every day. 

We start today's show with a Skyler Howes interview and then move to Javi Vega, finally chatting with photographer Marcin Kin. Howes has had a few really tough days battling illness, crashes and mechanical threats on the course, but he's still in contention for a podium spot by the end of the race. We get his insight into the first week and what he's looking towards starting tomorrow. 

Vega has been racing the Original by Motul class for a few years and on a Kove for two years now. We find out about some bike issues and his motivation to get on the class podium. 

We all want to know what photographers do when they see a dangerous spot on the course - do they shoot or try to direct riders away from the danger? We ask Marcin Kin, a Red Bull photographer and one of the best in the biz. 

Finally, we drop in some good Quinn-and-Answer questions and Jesse tries to get Quinn to talk about more factory rally bike secrets. Enjoy the show! 

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The Baja Rally

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Dakar Rally Daily is produced and edited by Jesse Ziegler, and hosted by Quinn Cody and Jesse Ziegler.

The first half of the 2026 Dakar Rally is complete as competitors head into a much deserved rest day tomorrow. After a brutal 900km and fourteen hours, the top racers in the Dakar Rally have finished the first half of this year's race. 

Up front, it's American Ricky Brabec on his Monster Energy Honda HRC Rally machine taking the top spot on the day by just over a minute to his teammate Tosha Schareina. Third on the day went to Red Bull KTM Factory Racing's Daniel Sanders, three seconds behind Schareina. The big story today is Sanders, who went to the front of the field early after catching his teammate Luciano Benevides. Sanders threw down a blistering pace at the front, riding away from the field and was clearly the fastest on-course. However, he was slapped with a six-minute speeding penalty after reportedly flying through a 50km/h zone at 98km/h.

The mistake took the sure stage win away from Sanders and closed the gap at the top of the general standings. Here, Sanders has the lead by a mere 45 seconds over Brabec with Benavides in third, more than ten minutes behind.

The rest day is welcomed for the bivouac, and we catch up with Mason Klein as he finishes another day in the top-ten rankings on-stage, and sits 13th overall.

Rest day tomorrow, and then we're straight in to a brutal second half of the 2026 Dakar Rally!

Follow and communicate with us via Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dakar\_rally\_daily/

And leave comments on Cycle News YouTube coverage: 

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Cycle News official race results coverage:

https://www.cyclenews.com/2026/01/article/2026-dakar-rally-results/

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The Baja Rally

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Dakar Rally Daily is produced and edited by Jesse Ziegler, and hosted by Quinn Cody and Jesse Ziegler.

The 2026 Dakar Rally has finished its first of two two-day marathon stages today and racers across the field had to deal with racing on worn tires from yesterday. We predicted that tire issues would cause a shakeup in the overall standings and it sure did with early front runner Edgar Canet of the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team suffering the worst of it, losing his rear mousse on the stage and having to limp his bike to the finish in Hail. Canet would be the last finisher on the day, losing more than four hours on race time, and more than 10 after penalties were assessed at the end of the day. His race at the front is over, but he does race tomorrow and will continue to be a factor in the stages if he stays healthy. American Skyler Howes predicted he'd have tire issues today and he did, having to take it easy on the day and sacrificing more than 20 minutes to get to the finish. 

Another victim of the day, albeit not because of tires, was the previous two days' winner Tosha Schareina, the Monster Energy Honda HRC Rally pilot lost ten minutes today almost immediately as he failed to enter the course between the required flag markers. His error cost him ten minutes on the day, and dropped him from sharing the lead to fourth place overall, almost 12 minutes behind the leader.

Today's stage was great for Luciano Benevides, the factory KTM racer made strategic choices to push at the end of the day to leap ahead in the standings and take his first stage win of the year. He now sits in third overall, as well. This was after a very high-speed crash, to boot. Likewise, Nacho Cornejo from the Hero squad rode a great stage, taking second overall for Hero, a result they desperately needed after Ross Branch dropped back in the standings today. 

Daniel Sanders came in third today, giving away almost six minutes to his teammate. 

In the general ranking, it's Sanders in control with a two minute gap to Ricky Brabec (fifth today), and then Benevides nearly six minutes behind Sanders in third. 

Tomorrow's stage is massive, over 900 kilometers on tap and a 4am start time for Benevides in the morning. The only repreive is the following day is Rest Day in Riyahd. 

Follow and communicate with us via Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dakar\_rally\_daily/

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Cycle News official race results coverage:

https://www.cyclenews.com/2026/01/article/2026-dakar-rally-results/

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The Baja Rally

(more to come!)

Dakar Rally Daily is produced and edited by Jesse Ziegler, and hosted by Quinn Cody and Jesse Ziegler.