Spainiard Oriol Mena rode flawlessly and finished the penultimate stage on the 11th position to climb upto ninth spot in the oveall rankings as Hero MotorSports is well poised for a commendable end to their third Dakar Rally here.
Mena's teammate Joaquim Rodrigues fought off severe back pain and crash in the ninth stage to finish at the 19th spot on Wednesday. He is now placed 17th in the overall rankings.
With just one more day to go for the completion of the 41st edition of the Dakar, considered as the world's most gruelling off-road rally, both Mena and Roidrigues would be hoping for an incident-free outing in the final stage.
Stage 9 witnessed a mass start in groups of 10 riders each. Offering a run of 313 kms in the special stage, it presented the competitors a 50-50 mix of the dunes and soft gravel laden terrain, a recipe for yet another fast stage.
The last stage will be the final test for all the competitors with a loop of Pisco in 112 kms special stage, before moving to Lima for the celebrations.
Australian Toby Price of KTM Factory Racing is leading the overall rankings among the bikers, followed by Pablo Quintanilla of Husqvarna Factory Racing and another KTM rider Matthias Walkner.
Mena said he concentrated on his own task in the penultimate stage.
"I am happy with my stage. It was a mass start and there were all kinds of things happening around me, like guys going in wrong directions, losing way points, engines breaking and so on. So I decided to shut myself off and do my own race with my own rhythm and flow," he said.
Rodrigues added: "It was a hard day. I had a crash and damaged my bike a little bit. My back is still sore from so I decided to just take it easy and focus on reaching the finish line safely."
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