The main 2013 Dakar Rally Bike contenders finished Stage 6 a few moments ago .

Chilean Francisco Lopez Contardo (nick name ‘Chaveco’)  driving a KTM  won his 2nd 2013 Dakar stage and climbed to 4th in General Classification (GC).

Portuguese Rúben Faria (KTM) was 2nd – 02:34 minutes from Chaveco – but is now 5th (dropped one place) in GC. However, he is 5 minutes closer to the leader:  8:35 instead of the earlier 13:34 minutes.

3rd place went to 4 times Dakar winner and major favorite Cyril Despres (KTM) 03:48 minutes behind. Despres moved to 2nd in GC.

Olivier Pain (Yamaha) kept the overall lead although he was just 10th today and lost 03:45 minutes to Despres. Pain has now a lead of only 2:22 minutes.

The best rated biker – Hélder Rodrigues (Honda) – finished 8th (06:58 behind) and climbed from 12th to 10th in GC. Paulo Gonçalves lead stage 6 all the way till check point 7, but had problems in the last part of the course and dropped several places finishing out of top 40.