Cycle News Staff | June 17, 2021
Monster Energy Yamaha Rally team’s Ross Branch wins Rally Kazakhstan in his first-ever victory in the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship.
Ross Branch has claimed victory at the opening round of the 2021 FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship, Rally Kazakhstan.
Photos by Rally Zone
Monster Energy Yamaha Rally Team’s Ross Branch has claimed victory at the opening round of the 2021 FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship, Rally Kazakhstan.
With a four-minute lead entering the final day of racing at Rally Kazakhstan, Ross Branch’s main objective was to deliver a consistent finish on stage five to claim the overall win. In placing second, Ross further extended his lead to just over five minutes to earn his first-ever victory in the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship.
Ross Branch
“All-in-all it’s been an amazing week here in Kazakhstan and I’m so happy to come away with the win,” Branch said. “Before this race, I really focused on working on my navigation and it certainly worked here. I opened stages and finished up front on each stage so I can’t ask for anything more. The goal today was to manage the lead that I had, and I feel like I was doing a good job up until the stage was cut short. Overall, I’ve really enjoyed the whole week. It’s great to be racing again and the team has done a fantastic job with the bike and it’s just been an awesome experience. I’m really happy to have won for myself and the team.”
Matthias Walkner took the runner-up position in the overall standings after holding the position across the five stages.
Matthias Walkner was just four minutes away from the win in stage five and had to settle for runner-up position.
Initially scheduled to include a 267.02km timed special, stage five of the 2021 Rally Kazakhstan was shortened to just 158.27km due to an issue with the event’s refueling setup. As such, riders’ times were very close over the final stage, with less than five minutes separating the top 10.
Walkner put in a mistake-free ride, but with the stage being shortened, there was less time to make any impact on the deficit. Walkner arrived at the finish in sixth, just over two minutes down on the stage winner, Hero Motorsports rider Joaquim Rodrigues.
Less than five minutes separated the top 10 in the final stage that Joaquim Rodrigues won.
“Finally, we have arrived at the finish line at Rally Kazakhstan,” Matthias Walkner said. “I’ve really enjoyed it–the landscape here has been amazing, and the event has been good. It’s been a very fast rally and that took a little time to get used to, but overall, I’m extremely happy with my riding and the bike has been perfect. Second place overall is good, it’s a little frustrating to be just four minutes away from the win after close to 15 hours of racing, and I know I made a couple of mistakes earlier in the race that cost me that time, but this is the nature of rallying. I’m especially happy that on the days where I was opening the stage, I was able to maintain a good pace and not lose too much time to the guys behind, so that’s really encouraging. I’m feeling good and already looking forward to Silkway.”
Joining Branch on the podium was his Yamaha Racing teammate Adrien Van Beveren in third. It was an equally consistent five days for the Frenchman who says he is not normally a fan of hard, fast and rocky terrain.
Adrien Van Beveren was not a fan of the rocky terrain and is looking forward to the Silk Way Rally in July.
“I’m super-happy to have finished third overall in the rally,” said Van Beveren. “It’s great for the team to have three riders in the top five and it’s nice to see Ross take the win, he deserved it. This rally isn’t really on my favored terrain, I would have preferred more sand, so to finish third here is a great result for me. I’m now looking forward to the Silk Way Rally.”
With Andrew Short in fifth place overall, it was a successful rally for the Yamaha team.
The motocross-style conditions favored the American as he began to make up time on the leading riders in a bid to move up the overall leaderboard. Frustratingly, a big crash in stage four resulted in a broken navigational tower, which left the 38-year-old without a roadbook to follow. Unharmed by the crash, Short followed the lines left by the leading riders to complete the stage in 11th, maintaining his fifth-place ranking in the provisional standings.
A crash in stage four left Monster Energy Yamaha’s Andrew Short without a roadbook, so he followed the lines left by the leading riders to take fifth place in the provisional standings.
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Sam Sunderland suffered a high-speed crash just over 20km into stage five. Rockstar Husqvarna’s Luciano Benavides stopped to help Sam at the scene until medics arrived.
Taken to the local hospital, scans confirmed Sunderland suffered a fractured hip and a concussion. Thankfully, the British rider is able to walk, and was soon discharged back with his team. Although disappointed not to have completed the event, Sunderland is thankful for the assistance he received, and will soon return home for further checks.
Sam Sunderland said airbag system prevented a worse injury when he suffered a fractured hip in a crash on stage five.
Benavides placed seventh on the stage to earn sixth overall in the provisional rally standings.
“It feels great to finish the race, it was really important for me and my confidence on the bike,” Benavides said. “Today was a really fast stage and near the beginning I saw that Sam Sunderland had crashed and so I stayed with him until the helicopter arrived. Thankfully he was okay, but it meant I had to ride the rest of the stage in the dust of some of the quads that came past me. I think I did a good job, especially on such a fast stage, I just tried to keep a good rhythm and not make any mistakes. It’s a shame the day was shortened, but the most important thing is I’m here at the finish.”
When he saw Sunderland crash, Rockstar Husqvarna’s Luciano Benavides stopped to help until medics arrived.
Benavides teammate Skyler Howes delivered an impressive performance, finishing stage five in fourth overall. Howes frustratingly suffered an issue with his rear mousse in stage three. He tried to repair the damage, he was unable to do so, and returned to the bivouac resulting in a seven-hour penalty and 10th overall in the Bike group.
Skyler Howes received a large time penalty following his technical issue on stage three, putting him in 14th overall in the rally standings.
Finding his rhythm during the second half of Rally Kazakhstan, Daniel Sanders delivered a pair of back-to-back third-place finishes on stages four and five to rocket up the leaderboard and end the rally in fourth overall.
Daniel Sanders struggled with navigation in the early stages, but then found his groove in the later stages resulting in a fourth overall.
1. Ross Branch (Yamaha) 14:39:02
2. Matthias Walkner (KTM) 14:44:09
3. Adrien Van Beveren (Yamaha) 14:49:18
4. Daniel Sanders (GasGas) 15:10:36
5. Andrew Short (Yamaha) 15:11:23
6. Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna) 15:21:30
7. Joaquim Rodrigues (Hero) 23:25:10
8. Franco Caimi (Hero) 23:26:03
9. Sebastien Bühler (Hero) 23:27:16
10. Skyler Howes (Husqvarna) 25:51:37
Round two of the 2021 FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship is the Silk Way Rally on July 1-11.
