. Reeve

By GRACE CHAILE  –
‘DAREDEVIL’ David Reeve remained on course to finish the world’s toughest race edition of the 2015 Dakar Rally when he finished stage nine in 35th position despite leaving his motorbike in bad shape.
Stage nine involved riders passing in Bolivian salt pan where some contenders crashed out as Reeve maintained his cautious approach in a bid to avoid an abrupt end as was the case in his last two attempts.
Reeve, who finished stage eight in 36 position, endured a rough marathon stage that left his motorbike in a bad shape and his team had to work throughout the night to ensure the rider continues with the race which went into the 10th stage yesterday.
“Riding on the Bolivia salt pan was absolutely crazy; 133km of brine saw many bikes unable make it home with my buddy Riaan van Niekerk being one of them. My bike did stop but I managed to limp home, Scott Spears and Vincent Crosbie spent the whole night replacing every wire harness on the bike,” Reeve said on his facebook page.
His team commended him for making up pace on other riders despite his bike coming off worse and needed to be worked on all night ahead of stage 10, which will be another difficult test for the riders.
“David had a very rough marathon stage but moved up the ladder. We worked all night as the bike was in really poor shape as a result of the salt flats. We had to replace sub wiring harness, ignition coil, had to repair main wire harness, fork seals, water in fuel tanks and replaced fuel pump,” his team posted.
Reeve’s first attempt saw him crash out after first breaking his right leg in 2013 before dislocating his knee in last year’s edition.