Igor Bouwens is was fifth in the third stage of the Morocco Desert Challenge on Tuesday. A flat tire again cost the trucker from Ham some time. In the overall standings, he is in third place at the foot of the first dunes.
The heat was the biggest enemy Tuesday in the third stage of the Morocco Desert Challenge, which led from Assa to Foum Zguid over 416 kilometers. Dutch trucker Anja van Loon even had to call for medical help as her teammate Suzanne Peek became unwell. She was taken away by helicopter but is doing well.
"Outside it is more than 40 degrees, in the cabin more than 50," says Igor Bouwens. "We drive with the windows open to still let in some draft in our Iveco T-Way." With his teammates Syndiely Wade and Ulrich Boerboom, the Gregoor Racing trucker took fifth place. "Initially it went very well. At the provisioning we didn't even see any other teams. We drove very carefully with all those stones, but in the long run you get so tired of that... In the end we did have another flat tire. Moreover, it turned out that an oil seal of the tire pressure system was also broken. Ulrich had to put out a fire twice during the tire change. Normally a change takes us only 6 to 10 minutes, but now it was more than 20, I estimate. We are still third behind Janus van Kasteren and Vick Versteijnen. That's where I expected us to be, but it could have been a bit closer. I hope we are now quietly diving into the dunes and getting rid of the stones."
Wednesday's fourth stage will be a 281-kilometer loop around Foum Zguid, with indeed the first real dunes.
Incidentally, Igor received a minute of penalty time Tuesday morning due to a speed violation in Monday's stage. As a result, he fell back one place in that stage result.
Automatic translation from the original Dutch version
Source: Gregoor Racing Team
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